U.S. Patent Office Classification

Lanham, B. E., The Use of the U.S. Patent Office Classification in Chemical Searches, Abstracts of Papers, 119th Meeting, ACS, April 1951, p. 7F. 

U. S, Patent Office, Classification Bulletins—class and subclass definitions, references to re-... 

Conventional classification uses terminology to establish and define classes, subclasses, and sub-subclasses. Distinction between a broad class and narrower subclass may be made by using progressively less generic terms as in the example cited from the U. S. Patent Office classification (9). 

The U.S. Patent Office Classification 435 includes the following subcategories related to therapeutic proteins. 

The United States Patent Oflfice classifies its patents into some 350 main classes, each of which is divided into many subclasses. There are now about 45,000 of these subclasses. Titles of the classes and subclasses are listed in the "Manual of Classification of Patents (54). Revision of this classification is a continuous process. As classes are revised and new definitions for them are written, these are pubhshed first in the Official Gazette of the U. S. Patent Office and later in the Classification Bulletin issued at intervals by the Patent Office. 

The U. S. Patent Office provides several guides for obtaining those patents of interest. These are the Manual of Classification of Patents (117), the index to said manual, plus a series of classification bulletins which define the classes and subclasses listed in the manual. Once having determined the subclasses of interest, one may obtain from the Patent Office, at a charge of about 20 cents a page, separate numerical lists of both the original references and cross references in each subclass. Furthermore, the Patent Office will supply these lists of subclasses and cross-reference lists upon receiving a request which fully describes the subject matter of interest. The subclasses of Class 260, The Chemistry of Carbon Compounds, are the subclasses of main interest, and these have been recently revised. The definitions for Class 260 are in Classification Bulletin No. 200 (116). It may be noted at this time that a revised copy of this bulletin, as well as a new index to the Classification Manual, is scheduled for publication in the near future. 

U.S. Patents. This file, produced by Derwent, Inc., covers U.S. patents from 1971 to the present. The database iacludes all bibliographic and front page information and the text of all claims. (Prom 1971 to 1974 the claims from many patents were not available from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) source tapes, and therefore are not iacluded.) The complete cl aim text can be searched from 1971 but can be ptinted only from 1982. Tides and patentee names are present ia their original form, aeither expanded nor standardized. There is no enhanced iadexiag. Examiner citations are directly searchable, and USPTO classification is updated when the tapes are received from the Patent Office. 

CASSIS USPTO USPTO Office of Electronic Data Conversion and Dissemination CASSIS, the Classification and Search Support Information System of the USPTO, comprises three subfiles CASSIS/BIB, bibHographic information for utiHty patents from 1969 and for others from 1977 CASSIS/CLASS, USPTO classification by patent number of class/subclass CASSIS/ASSIST, iadex to U.S. Manual of Classification U.S. Manual of Classification, Class Definitions IPC, U.S. Classification Concordance Manual of Patent Examining Procedure Attorneys/ Agents Roster, etc... 

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Web Patent Databases. The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) [72] offers free World Wide Web access, http // www.uspto.gov/main/patents.htm, to a bibliographic patent database that uses the most current patent classification system, this may not match the classification data that appears on the printed patent, and to a full-text patent database that uses the classification data that appear on the printed patent, this may not match the current classification data. The databases start with January 1, 1976, patents. The full text of a patent includes all bibliographical data (e.g., inventor s name, the patent s title, the assignee s name, etc.) and the abstract, full description of the invention, and the claims. All the words in the text of the patent are searchable. If the patent number is known, the patent, regardless of year, can be ordered from the PTO. Automated searching of 1971 to date patents is available at some of the Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries. Prior to 1971 searching can be done at the PTO facilities or at the Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries. Commercial patent search services are also available. 

Anyone applying for a patent at the national or international level is required to determine whether their creation is new or is already owned or claimed. To determine this, huge amounts of information must be searched. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization s (WIPO) International Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) have created classification systems which organize information concerning inventions into indexed, manageable categories for easy retrieval. 

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Washington DC United States Patent and Trademark Office. URL http // www.uspto.gov/. Provides information on the patenting process, U.S. and International patent law and regulations, resources for independent inventors, search aids, and fee-based online delivery of patents. Includes U.S. patent applications and issued patents back to 1790. The full-text of patents is available since 1976. Includes help on viewing the images and searching by U.S. classifications. Classifications and related information, including a U.S. to International Patent Classifications concordance and an overview of the classification system, are available from the USPTO s Office of Patent Classification. Available online. 

United States Patent and Trademark Office, www.uspto.gov (all accessed August 9, 2010). Official Web site of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Recently redesigned to highlight patent and trademark searching along with services for inventors. Also available online is the U.S. Manual of Classification, www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/, listing class schedules and linked classification definitions. This is updated regularly. 

Manual of Classification, U.S. Department of Commerce, Patent and Trademark Office, Washington, D.C. revised regulady. 

Lovett, G. A., Manual of Classification of the German Patent Office, U. S. Government... 

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