Select patents based on their CPC and or IPC classification. The CPC (Cooperative Patent Classification) and IPC (International Patent Classification) are hierarchical set of classes applied to patent documents. The classification(s) of each patent is done by patent attorneys in order to make searching easier. Click on the CPC/IPC lookup link (
) to get an overview of the possible code classifications with their descriptions.
Some guidelines:
- Codes starting with A are typically related to applications / industries
- Codes starting with B & C are typically processes
- Codes D to H are a mixture of both.
- Codes Y (Only CPC) are new technological developments (e.g. climate change).
CPC/IPC lookup
When you click on the CPC/IPC lookup link (), you will get a modal where you can navigate the different classifications that are used in patents. The CPC/IPC is divided into nine sections, A-H and Y (only CPC), which are sub-divided into classes, sub-classes, groups and sub-groups. There are approximately 250 000 (80 000 for IPC) classification entries.
You can use the section navigation and search box in the top right of the modal, to quickly navigate to a specific section or code. The search box allows you to search for a specific code or keyword to find related codes. Searching by keyword is done in the title and abstract of the patents and not in the code descriptions, the codes showed are the most occuring in the found patents.
Navigating codes is done by clicking on the code it self to see the child codes. You can also click on the code inside a code description.
Select a code by checking the checkbox next to each code. You can see the selected code classifications in the left bottom corner. When you select a code, the child codes are default also selected. To uncheck the child codes, you will have to click on the icon (
) in front of the selected code. The icon (
) indicates that the child codes are not included.