The International Patent Classification (IPC) is a hierarchical patent classification system published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Headquarters in Geneva The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations. ...

Patent publications are assigned a "Main IPC" and a "Secondary IPC" to classify the content of the patent or patent application. Some national patent offices add additional IPCs. A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to a person for a fixed period of time in exchange for the regulated, public disclosure of certain details of a device, method, process or composition of matter (substance) (known as an invention) which is new, inventive and... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with patent prosecution. ... A patent office is a governmental or intergovernmental organisation which controls the issue of patents. ...

For instance, C07 stands for Organic chemistry. Organic chemistry is the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and synthesis of organic compounds that by definition contain carbon. ...

See also

• esp@cenet
• European Classification system (ECLA)
• F-term
• INPADOC

esp@cenet is a free online service for searching patents and patent applications. ... In Japanese patent law, F-term is a system for classifying Japanese patent documents according to the technical features of the inventions described in them. ... INPADOC, which stands for International Patent Documentation Center, is an international patent collection. ...

External links

• IPC main page on the WIPO web site
• English IPC versions on the WIPO web site
  • IPC version 7 - obsolete (valid from December 31, 2005 to January 1, 2006)
  • IPC version 8 - valid since January 1, 2006