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The Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) is a patent classification system, which has been jointly developed by the European Patent Office (EPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).〔(CPC replaces ECLA on Espacenet ), Patent Information News issue 4/2012, December 2012, p. 4.〕 The CPC is substantially based on the previous European classification system (ECLA), which itself was a more specific and detailed version of the International Patent Classification (IPC) system. ==Structure== Patent publications are each assigned at least one classification term indicating the subject to which the invention relates and may also be assigned further classification and indexing terms to give further details of the contents. Each classification term consists of a symbol such as "A01B33/00" (which represents "tilling implements with rotary driven tools"). The first letter is the "section symbol" consisting of a letter from "A" ("Human Necessities") to "H" ("Electricity") or "Y" for emerging cross-sectional technologies. This is followed by a two digit number to give a "class symbol" ("A01" represents "Agriculture; forestry; animal husbandry; trapping; fishing"). The final letter makes up the "subclass" (A01B represents "Soil working in agriculture or forestry, parts, details, or accessories of agricultural machines or implements, in general"). The subclass is then followed by a 1 to 3 digit "group" number, an oblique stroke and a number of at least two digits representing a "main group" ("00") or "subgroup". A patent examiner assigns a classification to the patent application or other document at the most detailed level which is applicable to its contents. : A: Human Necessities : B: Operations and Transport : C: Chemistry and Metallurgy : D: Textiles : E: Fixed Constructions : F: Mechanical Engineering : G: Physics : H: Electricity : Y: Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies This classification closely follows the International Patent Classification. An example of the CPC classification scheme in the area of agriculture is shown in the attached figure. The text in curly brackets refers to text provided by the CPC classification scheme. The rest of the text refers to text originating from the International Patent Classification. The CPC scheme is accompanied by a set of CPC Definitions,〔 which are documents which explain how to use the CPC scheme for classifying and searching a specific technology. A part of the CPC Definition related to the scheme A01B is shown in the second figure. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cooperative Patent Classification」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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