U.S. Patent Classification System

Submitted by Barbara Gilles on Wed, 2009-11-18 16:39

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's classification scheme for categorizing patent applications and patents.

General information
Vocabulary alternative name or acronym: 

USPC System

Vocabulary type: 
Classification System
Vocabulary URL: 

http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/

Was vocabulary created as a course project: 
No
Scope and Usage
Languages: 

English

Purpose: 

Provides guidance for patent searches in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) databases.

Used By: 

Patent researchers and patent examiners

Vocabulary characteristics
Type of display : 
Hierarchy
Alphabetical list
Description of overall structure: 

Includes numeric notation throughout

Type of terms: 

Technology areas

Relationship types: 
Hierarchical (Broader/narrower terms)
Hierarchical (Whole/part)
Number of classes: 

Over 400

Number of terms: 
over 165,000
Number of preferred terms: 
over 165,000
Terms and Conditions
Availability: 
Freely available for online viewing and searching
Provider
Vocabulary provider name: 
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Provider URL: 

http://www.uspto.gov/

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <img> <div> <pre> <address> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options