1. Overview of Electronic Lifecycle of USPTO Reclassification Projects
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Office of Patent Classification
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2. Reclassification Project Workflow
From project scope to placing documents
Business rules
Reclass documentation
Reports
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3. Where Do Reclassification Projects Come From?
International Harmonization projects: USPTO, EPO and JPO agree to reclassify specific areas simultaneously
USPTO examination staff identifies areas where reclassification is needed to meet growth or classify emerging technology
Reclassification projects typically address emerging technologies or overlapping/outsized art – number of documents and frequency of search are often used in prioritization of work.
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4. Electronic Reclassification Projects Components
Classification data must be standardized to facilitate electronic storage and updating
Business rules must accommodate the various roles and privileges for project members as well as the different project phases
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5. Initial Classification Schedule Classification Definition Development
The Administrator will create the reclassification project using subclasses, patents, TPCs, or a combination thereof
The Administrator will assign the roles to the requested project members
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6. Initial Classification Schedule Classification Definition Development
The Project Leader can establish multiple working schedules to test various retrieval strategies
Business Rules are enforced within each working schedule as well as between multiple working schedules in a reclassification project
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7. Initial Classification Schedule/ Classification Definition Development (Continued)
What is required from a contractor?
Review the scope
Create a draft schedule
Get input/direction from USPTO personnel on draft schedule
Finalize Draft initial schedule and definition development
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8. CDS Desktop electronic reclassification tool
Working numbers used during development of classification schemes.
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9. Incorporation of workflow
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10. CDS Desktop provides functionality for creating classification schedule, definitions, and patent placement
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11. Reclassification Project Updates
The “initial working schedule” includes temporary subclasses for weekly issues, MTR, and updates emanating from recently completed reclassification projects
These documents must be moved into appropriate subclasses prior to the project being promoted to the Tentative MoC
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12. Schedule Testing
The number of documents to be tested in the new draft schedule is dependent on where the project originated. If the project is a result of an international harmonization project, then 10% of documents are placed in the new schedule
This project originated in the USPTO thus about 10% are tested (numbers may vary slightly from US project to US Project)
Adjust schedule and definitions as appropriate - - if a project originates from an international harmonization project, the contractor must compare the schedule with the EPO and JPO schedules
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13. Patent Document Placement
CDS Desktop provides functionality for passing a listing of project patents to the EAST retrieval AIS tool
Project personnel may use drag & drop functionality, or alternatively use the PCI form or the Patent Grid to reclassify the patents belonging to the reclassification project
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14. Reclassification Project Validation
Project patents in the temporary subclasses for weekly issues, MTR, and updates emanating from recently completed reclassification projects must be moved into appropriate subclasses prior to the project being promoted to the Tentative MoC
The Administrator validates the project patents, as well as linkages in the classification definitions, prior to promoting from the TMoC to the MoC
Many of the components of the Class Order are exported directly from the CDS Desktop database
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15. Promotion to Production
Following the approval of the classification schedule and placement of the majority of patent documents into the new subclasses, the project is promoted to the Tentative MoC (TMoC)
The Administrator assigns “final” numbers prior to promoting to the TMoC
Classification definitions outside the scope of the project can be edited as needed to update existing linkages as well as create new linkages – the TMoC provides access to version control functionality for classification definitions
Changing the project scope requires backing out of the TMoC
The Office of Classification Support (OCS) provides the “Definitions Citation Index Report” (DCIR) of existing linkages in the classification definitions that need to be reviewed and updated in a given reclassification project. OCS also provides a listing of USPC Index entries to the Project Leader for updating.
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16. Publication of reclassification project information
Following the promotion of the electronic reclassification project, the necessary data is exported from the CDS Desktop AIS tool for creation of the Classification Order
The issuance of the Classification Order coincides with the official availability of the data in USPTO search systems
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17. Reclassification Project Documentation
This phase takes the draft schedule and develops it into a comprehensive final classification containing:
Manual of Classification changes
Changes to US-IPC Concordance
Changes to Index to US Classification system
List of Classification Change Sheets
Working Number-Final Number Translation Lists
Final Number-Working Number Translation Lists
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18. Reclassification reports
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19. USPC-to-IPC “Reverse” Concordance
Created by inverting the data in the USPC-to-IPC concordance -- useful as an entry point into the USPC system
Concordance data was updated for IPC8 in 2006 – over 8000 new entries (over 265,000 total entries) since Jan2006.
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