Recently, the European Patent Office (EPO) and the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance their cooperation in the area of patent classification. Under the terms of the MoU, as of January 2014, SIPO will start the classification of some newly published invention patent applications according to the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC). In 2016, SIPO will classify its new invention patent applications according to the CPC in all technical areas. The classification data will be shared with the EPO.
The introduction of the CPC at SIPO to classify Chinese patent documents is another significant achievement to promote the bilateral cooperation between the two offices. The Chinese invention patent applications ranked first in the world consecutively in 2011 and 2012. In July 2012, Chinese patent documents were formally included into the PCT Minimum Documentation. Classifying Chinese patent documents according to the CPC will undoubtedly improve the search efficiency of these documents by the examiners of various patent offices worldwide, and help these documents better serve global users.
The CPC is the most refined classification system for patent documents in the world which entered into force at the EPO and at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on 1 January 2013. It is largely based on the European Classification (ECLA) system formerly used at the EPO. The CPC is already used by more than 45 patent offices worldwide as a means to perform efficient prior art searches during the patent granting process.
