Content
Patents and utility models
Systematic searches for technical IP rights
Classifications allow the performance of language-independent, systematic searches.
More than 100 patent offices use the International Patent Classification (IPC) to achieve an internationally uniform classification of patent office publications. The IPC serves as a search tool for the retrieval of patent documents in order to establish novelty and evaluate the inventive step or non-obviousness including the assessment of technical advancements and possible exploitation or utility of technical disclosures in patent applications.
The International Patent Classification (IPC) serves as
- an instrument for the orderly categorisation of patent documents in order to facilitate access to the technological and legal information contained therein
- a basis for selective dissemination of information to all users of patent information
- a basis for determining the state of the art for a patent
- a basis for the preparation of industrial property statistics which in turn permit the assessment of technological development in various areas
Searches with the IPC
Information material
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Handbook IPC (in German) - Video zur IPC-Recherche: Windows Media Video / QuickTime (Mac OS) /
Manuskript zum Video (in German)
The use of IPC classification symbols allows you to conduct a systematic and language-independent search within the DPMA’s DEPATISnet database. A description of the system and instructions on the use of these classification symbols during the search can be found in the help texts of that section.
Picture: iStock.com/disk
Last updated: 20 October 2020
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