Introduction
The IPC section, class, subclass, group, main group, or subgroup into which at least one member of the patent family is classified. The IPC (International Patent Classification) was established in the Strasbourg Agreement of 1971 as an internationally uniform patent classification system and is used by patent offices worldwide. The IPC has a hierarchical structure. The first letter of the IPC symbol denotes the section (e.g., "A: HUMAN NECESSITIES"). Each section is divided into classes (e.g., "A23: FOODS OR FOODSTUFFS […]"). Each class is divided into subclasses (e.g., "A23F: COFFEE; TEA […]"). Each subclass is divided into groups (e.g., "A23F 3: Tea; Tea substitutes […]"). Groups are either main groups (e.g., "A23F 3/00: Tea; Tea substitutes […] (Not otherwise classified)") or subgroups (e.g., "A23F 3/16: ・Tea extraction […]"). The symbols of the main groups end with "/00".
The International Patent Classification (IPC) is an internationally used patent classification system and has a hierarchical structure:
- The first letter denotes the IPC section.
- The following 2-digit number denotes the IPC class.
- The following letter denotes the IPC subclass.
- The 1–3-digit number following the letter denotes the IPC group.
- The last 1–3-digit number following a forward slash "/" denotes the IPC main group (…/00) or subgroup.
The same structure is also reflected in the PatentSight BI when searching for IPCs or when grouping charts and tables by IPCs. However, PatentSight differentiates between the two modes IPC (Smart) and IPC (Original). These modes are also available for CPCs (CPC (Smart), CPC (Original)) and F-Terms (F-term (Smart), F-Term (Original)).
The difference between these two modes is the treatment of indented subgroups (identifiable by the preceding dots). The option IPC (Original) only includes patent families that belong to the subgroup you have selected. The option IPC (Smart) takes the hierarchy resulting from the indentation into account and additionally includes patent families that belong to any subgroups that are lower in hierarchy than the subgroup you have selected.
| Example: IPC Subgroup A61K 51/02 | |
| 51/00 | Preparations containing radioactive substances for use in therapy or testing in vivo [2006.01] |
| Note(s) [6] In this group, it is desirable to add the indexing codes of groups A61K 101/00-A61K 103/00. | |
| 51/02 | ・characterized by the carrier [2006.01] |
| 51/04 | ・・Organic compounds [2006.01] |
| 51/06 | ・・・Macromolecular compounds [2006.01] |
| 51/08 | ・・・Peptides, e.g. proteins [2006.01] |
| 51/10 | ・・・・Antibodies or immunoglobulins; Fragments thereof [2006.01] |
| 51/12 | ・characterized by a special physical form, e.g. emulsion, microcapsules, liposomes [2006.01] |
IPC Original
➤ If you search for A61K 51/02 using IPC (Original), only patent families with at least one member that is classified into A61K 51/02 will be included in your search results.
IPC Smart
➤ If you search for A61K 51/02 using IPC (Smart), not only patent families with at least one member that is classified into A61K 51/02, but also those patent families with at least one member that is classified into any of the classifications A61K 51/04 to A61K 51/10 (the hierarchical children of A61K 51/02) will be included in your search results.