U.S., Europe Will Collaborate On Patent System

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and the European Patent Office have agreed to jointly develop a patent classification system based on the European model. Unifying the systems under which patents are filed will help eliminate unnecessary duplication of work between the two offices and promote more efficient, higher quality patent examinations than is currently possible. Most major patent classification systems, including the one used in Europe, are based on the International Patent Classification (IPC) system, which is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization. However, the U.S. patent system predates the IPC structure. In addition to aligning the U.S. and European systems with the IPC, a goal of the partnership is to establish a more detailed classification system to improve patent searching, the offices say. A single classification system will allow patent searchers to find relevant patents from around the world more easily and to compare the technical content of these documents more efficiently because they will be working from a common framework, says Anthony Trippe, chair of the Patent Information Users Group, an international organization for patent professionals.