Harmony Project

1
Trilateral Classification
Harmony Project
IPC Forum Geneva, 13 February 2006
Yoshihiro FUJI
Director Examination Policy Planning Office Japan
Patent Office (JPO)
2
Reasons for Harmonization

• Increase in documents to be classified
• gt 500,000 (EPO ECLA)
• gt 500,000 (JPO FI)
• gt 300,000 (USPTO USPC) docs / year
• - Further increase expected
• Establish a well-structured documentation
• Harmonize internal schemes
• Facilitate access to TOs documents with common
  schemes
• Enhance the availability of TOs documents
• Further expand (to be IPC Advanced Level)
• Share reclassification work
• Reduce classification effort (for EP)

Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
3
Reasons for Harmonization

• Three different classification systems
• (IPC-AL 69,000 Classifications)

Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
4
History of Harmony Project
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status

• 2000.11 18th Trilateral Conference
• - TOs agreed on creating pilot projects
• 2001.2 Committee of Experts of IPC Union
• 30th session
• - 19 fields selected for TOs harmony projects
• (T001-T019)
• - 7 of the 19 fields are from IPC revision
  projects

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History of Harmony Project
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
Trilateral Working Group on Classification
2002.9 7th session - new project
(T020) 2003.1 8th session - new projects
(T021-T023) 2003.9 9th session - new
projects (T024-T030) 2004.2 10th session - new
projects (T031-T032) 2004.10 11th session - new
projects (T035-T037) 2005.3 12th session - new
projects (T038-T047) 2005.9 13th session - new
projects (T048-T056) 2006.3 14th session (at
Berlin, EPO)
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Actions

• Select technical fields for harmonization
• e.g. Wireless Communication Networks, Business
  methods
• (Phase A) Initial Determination of Scope
• (Phase B) Project Plan
• (Phase C) Provisional Scheme Development
• (Phase D) Test of Provisional Scheme
• (Phase E) Final Scheme Agreement
• (Phase F) Documents Reclassification

Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
7
Procedural steps exchange compare schemes
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status

• Exchange Compare current schemes
• ECLA FI USPC
• . EPtext1 . JPtext1 . UStext1
• . . EPtext2 . . JPtext2 . UStext2
• . . EPtext3 . . JPtext3 . UStext3
• . . . JPtext4

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Procedural steps discuss solutions
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status

• Discuss solutions

E-forum
E-mail
Meeting /Exchange
(Trilateral) Harmony Visit (2005.6)
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Procedural steps discuss solutions
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status

• Harmony visit (2005.6)

• EP/JP Harmony visit (at EPO)
• 19 fields

Trilateral Harmony visit (at USPTO) - 10 fields
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Procedural steps discuss solutions
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status

• Effect of Harmony visit

Existing projects - Acceleration of discussion
on classification harmonization
Potential projects - Creation of new
projects(T052T053)
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Procedural steps agree on common scheme
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status

• Agree on common scheme
• e.g. Business Methods
• ECLA FI USPC
• . G06Q30/00C . G06F17/60,300 . . 3044D
• . . G06Q30/00C2 . . G06F17/60,342 . . 3043N
• . . G06Q30/00C4 . . 3050Y

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Procedural steps agree on common scheme

• Agree on common scheme (Phase C)
• HARMONY (ECLA/FI/USPC)
• . G06Q30/00C . Data processing in
  buying/selling or leasing
• 
  transactions
• . . 3044D .. for matching
• . . 3043N .. for auction
• . . G06Q30/00C2 .. for electronic shopping,
  e.g. electronic
• 
  catalogue, remote browsing or ordering
• . . 3050Y .. electronic catalogue
• . . G06F17/60,342 .. for leasing transaction

Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
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Procedural steps finalization of project
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
Classification test (Phase D)
Final agreement (Phase E)
Shared reclassification (Phase F)
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Actions for ALS
Advanced Level Special Subcommittee

• Select technical fields for harmonization
• e.g. Wireless Communication Networks, Business
  methods
• (Phase A) Initial Determination of Scope
• (Phase B) Project Plan
• (Phase C) Provisional Scheme Development
• (Phase D) Test of Provisional Scheme
• (Phase E) Final Scheme Agreement
• (Phase F) Documents Reclassification

Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
Phase C Completed - IPC Revision Proposal to ALS
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Actions for ALS
Phase C Completed - IPC revision proposal to ALS
(SC-project)
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
ALS Approval
- Creation of A-project
- Invitation for comments discussion
ALS Approval
- Documents reclassification
Completed
- Entering into force of IPC-AL
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Harmony to IPC
No.of divisions
Harmonized
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
FI
200K
USPC
150K
ECLA
Advanced Level
68711groups
100K
Reformed IPC
Core Level (30 of AL Classes)
50K
Int.Cl4
Int.Cl5
Int.Cl6
Int.Cl7
1985
1990
1995
2000
2006
2012
2009
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Effects of Harmony project reformed IPC
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
e.g. Combating harmful chemical
substances by chemical means
Different search in each classification system
USPTO
EPO
JPO
Others
A62D3/00A
A62D3/00,301
588/300
A62D3/00
ECLA Search
FI Search
USPC Search
IPC Search
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Effects of Harmony project reformed IPC
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
The same search strategy applied among TOs
according to harmonized classification scheme
USPTO
EPO
JPO
Others
A62D3/00E
A62D3/00,400
588/302
A62D3/00
IPC Search
ECLA FI USPC Search
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Effects of Harmony project reformed IPC
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
The same search strategy applied among all the
documents classified according to the IPC-AL
USPTO
JPO
EPO
Others
A62D3/1010
A62D3/1010
A62D3/1010
A62D3/1010
IPC Advanced level search
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Current status
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status

• 45 Active Harmony projects
• 6 Harmony projects already forwarded to ALS

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Current projects 1/3
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
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Current projects 2/3
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
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Current projects 3/3
Reasons History Actions Procedure Actions for
ALS Harmony to IPC Status
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Thank you for your attention !
IPC Forum Geneva, 13 February 2006