IPC is divided into five levels: part, class, subclass, main group, group,
Among them, the middle part is the highest classification layer in the classification table, and it is divided into eight parts according to different fields, marked with one-digit English letters, that is, A.H. There are several categories under each department, which are composed of two digits, and there are different categories under each department, such as A0 1, agriculture; Forestry; Animal husbandry; Hunting; Trap; Fishing; Subclasses consist of a capital letter, such as A0 1B, agricultural or forestry land preparation; Parts, components or accessories of general agricultural machinery or tools; Each subclass is subdivided into many groups, including main group and grouping. The main group consists of advanced category number plus one to three digits and "/oO", for example: A0 18I/00, hand tools; Grouping consists of labels with subcategory number or above and subcategory number plus one to three digits, plus two to four digits except "oo".
Although IPC has a clear definition of each category, the classification principle of IPC should be followed when classifying patent trademarks. IPC Classification Table The classification table defines five classification principles:
(1) overall classification
Some technical topics should be classified as a whole as far as possible, rather than classifying its components separately.
(2) Functional classification
Technical topics are classified into functional classification positions according to functional classification; If the function classification position does not exist in the classification table, it should be classified into the appropriate application classification position.
(3) Application classification
Some technical topics are classified into application classification positions according to application classification; If the application classification location does not exist in the classification table, it should be classified into the appropriate functional classification location.
(4) Pay equal attention to functional classification and application classification
Some technical topics are divided into functional classification bits and application classification bits according to functional classification. If the function classification position does not exist in the classification table, it is only classified as the application classification position; If no classification bits are applied in the classification table, it is only divided into functional classification bits.
(5) Classification of independent claims and dependent claims
Characteristics of international patent classification table
First of all, from the definition of IPC, we can see that IPC category labels are multi-level, and the depth of each level reaches five levels. Secondly, from the classification principle of IPC, according to different classification principles, a patent often has multiple tags, and most patents retrieved from USPTO official website have multiple IPC tags. For example, the IPC number of U.S. Patent No.49 10036 is A23L I/0522；; ; A23L 1/32 1 A23L 1/39 1 A23L 00 1/32 1A23L 00 1/ 195； A2 1D 002/36. There are also many IPC labels provided by Japanese patents. The main reason for multi-IPC tags is that there is overlap between the classification principles of IPC category system. Some patents will have a corresponding IPC according to the functional classification, and a corresponding different TPC mark according to the application classification.
For example, a camera capable of loading a plurality of films and exposing the films prepared therein as required and its device on an airplane. That is, classified by function G03B 1 9/06 and classified by application B64D47/08.