WASHINGTON - The US Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) announced the expansion of the cooperation in classification activities between the USPTO and KIPO.  According to the USPTO, KIPO will increase the number of technical areas in which KIPO will classify its patent documents using the Cooperative Patent Classification system (CPC), a classification system jointly managed by the USPTO and the European Patent Office (EPO), which debuted on January 1, 2013.

 

The cooperation between KIPO and the USPTO is being expanded as a major step towards KIPO classifying its patent collection using the CPC.  KIPO will classify its patent collection in 50 additional CPC technical fields in 2015, especially where technologies for which filings have been especially active at KIPO.  KIPO will work together with the USPTO to identify these technologies. 

 

“This is an important achievement which will provide significant benefits for the innovation community by improving examination quality and streamlining the application process,” said Deputy Under- Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO Michelle K. Lee. “The expansion of Korean patent documents classified into the CPC system further enhances the usefulness of the CPC and demonstrates the excellent bilateral relationship and spirit of cooperation between USPTO and KIPO.”

 

KIPO Commissioner Young-min Kim said, “KIPO plans to gradually expand the technical fields in which the CPC is used in KIPO and will continue to work with the USPTO in this effort. It is expected that the use of unified classification system, the CPC, by the Offices will contribute to highly efficient retrieval of patent documents in the expanded technical fields.”

 

Since October 2010, the USPTO and EPO have worked jointly to develop a common, internationally compatible classification system to be used by both offices in various examination-related processes in an ongoing effort to enhance efficiency through work-sharing initiatives and reduce unnecessary duplication of work. For further information about the CPC, please visit www.cpcinfo.org.