Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) – FAQ
What is CPC?
The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) effort is a joint partnership between the USPTO and the EPO
where the Offices have agreed to harmonize their existing classification systems (ECLA and USPC,
respectively) and migrate towards a common classification scheme. The CPC will become bi-laterally
operational at the two offices by 1st January 2013 and will replace ECLA at the EPO from that date and the
USPC at the USPTO during a period of transition to 2015.
What are the main advantages of the new classification scheme, CPC?
CPC is very granular and yields more focussed search results then the classification systems it is replacing,
ECLA and USPC. The scheme includes more than 250,000 symbols to incorporate: ECLA, ICO (EPO indexing
codes) and most important EPO controlled keywords; refinements of the G06Q scheme for Business
Methods, US special collections and digests, Y section (new technological developments or cross-over
technologies spanning over several sections)
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CPC is more up to date and dynamic – the scheme benefits from regular (monthly) updating cycle
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CPC is based on ECLA and maintains the IPC main root in the format of each symbol, eg
H01L21/02736
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It is flexible and facilitates harmonization
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Promotes work sharing and resource leverage for the participating offices
Will the ECLA classification be allocated to any patent data published from 1st January 2013?
ECLA classification will be discontinued from documents published /classified from January 2013. It will still
appear on documents added to DWPI during the first few months of 2013 for documents with a publication
date prior to January 2013 and for which the classification was completed before 2013.
Are ECLA symbols going to be removed from the Thomson Reuters products?
No, all the ECLA symbols allocated data published before 1st January 2013 will be kept in the Thomson
Reuters products for historical searches.
Will the CPC data replace the US patent classification (USPC) from 1st January 2013?
No, there will be a period of transition until 2015 during which the USPC would be gradually phased out and
the CPC will be used instead. According to the most recent information from the USPTO, beginning in March
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2013, the US Pre-grant publications, US-A, will be published with dual national classification: USPC and CPC.
The US Granted patents will be published with USPC and/or, optionally, CPC until 2015.
Will the CPC replace the IPC?
No, the CPC symbols will be allocated in addition to the IPC.
Will the CPC symbols be available on the patent documents at the time of publication?
Only the US data will have the CPC symbols on the front page at the time of publication.
The EPO will continue with the current practice for ECLA and will allocate CPC symbols to EP data and the
subset of “minimum PCT documentation “published in one of the three EPO languages (English, French, and
German). The CPC symbols allocated by the EPO will be made available post publication and their availability
is technology dependent. Therefore, the CPC symbols could appear on the data classified by the EPO
examiners from several days to six months or more after publication.
Some national patent offices may also allocate CPC classification to their national data and make the
classification symbols available at the time of publication.
Are reliable conversion tools for ECLA and USPC to CPC available?
There are reliable ECLA/CPC/IPC mapping tools. The main ECLA symbols could be converted to CPC symbols.
However, the CPC scheme is much more granular and includes the ICO indexing codes, keywords, business
method subdivisions. Full consideration should be given to the detailed CPC subdivisions, additional codes
and indexing in order to take advantage of the benefits of the CPC scheme.
The mapping from USPC to CPC is not reliable and it is based on statistical analysis. This is due to the fact
that the two classification systems are not compatible as the USPC is not based on IPC/ECLA.
Which Thomson Reuters products will include CPC?
The following products will include CPC in 2013:
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Custom IP Applications
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Derwent World Patents Index
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Patents Profiles
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Search Services
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Thomson Data Analyzer
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Thomson Innovation

Westlaw
What are the main product features related to the CPC implementation?
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Fields for Original CPC at time of publication (Core data) and for the Current CPC
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Historical classification data (ECLA and USPC) will remain in product
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CPC backfile will be loaded
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CPC user aids : browser, conversion tools, definitions, thesaurus (on STN)
What resources are available to help explain the CPC changes to customers?
The Thomson Reuters Training, Product Specialist, Solution Consultant teams will assist our
customers with details regarding the CPC changes, specific product implementation, and timelines.
Additionally, our IP Services team is available at [email protected] to assist
you with the conversion and ensure you're getting the search results you need.
Where will the CPC data be loaded from in the Thomson Reuters products?
There are two sources of CPC data, the US patent data and the main exchange bibliographic file
from the EPO. Other national patent offices may agree to allocate CPC and even to make the CPC
available in their own data feeds. If that happens we will have more sources of data, in addition to
the US data.
Will there be different classification guidelines for the US examiners and EPO examiners when
applying CPC?
Currently the USPC for the US granted patents applies only to the Claims. The guidelines will change
to be consistent for all data classified by all patent offices that allocate CPC. The CPC is based on the
full patent specification, ie disclosure and claims. A quality assurance system will be put in place to
ensure that the classification symbols allocated by both offices are in accordance with the rules for
classification compiled in the CPC scheme and the CPC definitions.
What are the main features of the CPC implementation in Thomson Reuter’s products?
The CPC Backfile, which includes the pre -1920 US data (to the extent it has been supplied by the
EPO and USPTO), will be loaded in 2013 Q1 for most of the products. In addition to the CPC new
symbols the Backfile will also include the most up to date version of the IPC and ECLA (to the end of
2012). DWPI Backfile will be updated to include the second version of the Backfile supplied by the
EPO at the end of January 2013 to include the CPC position indicator, a late addition to the CPC data.
Therefore the DWPI Backfile with the position indicator will be available at the end of April 2013.
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The ongoing CPC data from 2013 will be accessible in Thomson Reuters products in separate fields
corresponding to its status: original for data issued at the time of publication (usually data extracted
from the direct weekly data feed from the patent office and the CPC allocated by the national
patent offices, CPCNO) and current for the most up to date version of the CPC for that record
(usually data extracted from main exchange bibliographic file from the EPO or US reclassification
feed).
What should users who use ECLA in their search strategies do?
Users who had been using ECLA must develop new strategies that incorporate CPC. Automatic
conversion between ECLA and CPC is not recommended, because CPC is a more granular system.
Our IP Services team is available at [email protected] to assist you with the
conversion and ensure you're getting the search results you need to make confident IP decisions.
What are the unique advantages of DWPI manual coding/deep indexing to the CPC classification?
Manual Codes are consistently applied by the same technology specialists within each specific
technology. Additionally, they are allocated to a wider range of countries, including China, Korea,
Japan, Thailand, etc. The DWPI manual codes are considered an industry standard because of their
high quality and ease of use.
Are there any websites related to the CPC system?
Yes, the official CPC website is http://www.cooperativepatentclassification.org/index.html.
Will CPC classifications be available for search and delivery in Patent Profiles?
Yes, the CPC symbols will be searchable as part of the Patent Profiles query as well as delivered
within the profiles. However, because these are current awareness alerts, it is likely that the CPC
data for many authorities will not be made available by the EPO at the time the profiles are being
produced. In the initial stages of the implementation of the CPC classification system throughout the
patent offices, we are expecting only CPC data from the USPTO to be published with sufficient
timeliness for inclusion in Patent Profiles. As further authorities begin publishing timely CPC data,
this will also be searched/displayed in Patent Profiles.
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