How we classify - Patent Classifications

As a patent granting authority we perform searches on United Kingdom (UK) patent applications. We use classification schemes to help us narrow down our search. We classify all applications before we publish them so that the classification information is available on the day of publication.

We classify UK patent applications by their technical content. There are several patent classification schemes that can be used and currently we apply the International Patent Classification (IPC) to all our applications. We used to apply our own UK Patent Classification (UKC) but following a public consultation (285Kb) we decided to stop doing this from 1 July 2007.

IPC key

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) maintains the International Patent Classification (IPC). The IPC is represented as a collection of alphanumeric codes. Each code refers to different types of technical information. Each patent document we publish will have at least one IPC code applied to it. The European Patent Office (EPO) and other patent offices worldwide also use it to classify their own patent documents.

UKC key

In addition to IPC codes, we also applied our own UKC codes to all UK patent applications considered prior to 1 July 2007. Whilst we no longer apply UKC codes to our applications those documents that have been classified are still available to search.

ECLA key

Another significant classification scheme is ECLA which is maintained by the European Patent Office (EPO). The EPO apply ECLA to their applications and also to documents from other patent offices (including the UK-IPO) which they include in their databases. ECLA has a similar structure to the IPC and can be used for searching within espacenet .

Other patent granting authorities also maintain their own classification schemes. These include the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Japan Patent Office (JPO).