The functions of international patent classification are:
(1) makes the patent documents of all countries obtain a unified classification tool, which is convenient for the classified management, use and retrieval of patent documents; (2) It can be used for various searches, such as patent literature search, to determine the novelty and creativity of patent applications (including evaluating the advanced nature and practical value of technology);
(3) Using IPC classification table to arrange patent documents, so that users can easily obtain technical and legal information from them; (4) As the basis for selectively reporting patent information to all users;
(5) as a basis for investigating the existing technical level in a certain technical field;
(6) As the basis of patent statistics, we can evaluate the technological development in various technical fields.