Annual Technical Report on Patent Information Activities in 2018 submitted by Intellectual Property Office of Serbia
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN PATENT INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of patent information activities and expected time frames for their realization
During this period, the focus was on data acquisition enhancement based on quality at source, for obtaining full text patent descriptions, along with the promotion of the e-filing.
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
IPO was involved in the flagship EPO projects through the following activities:
- membership in the pilot group for the development of the new patent e-filing system (HFS);
- customization of the New Espacenet user interface;
- full text production in the scope of the Quality at Source project, by the WIPO Patent OCR platform, customized together with EPO.
IPO customized and tested WIPO Publish program for the online publication of all industrial property files.
IPO continued E-filing system improvement with the local contractor.
IPO provided ePCT platform access to the applicants of the PCT patents.
IPO maintained IPCPub platform in order to publish new IPC versions, which are translated in the WIPO IPCR online system
In the course of 2018, from the activities which were realized according to the requests of the standard ISO 9001:2015 in the framework of the certified System Quality and which referred to its implementation, maintenance and continual upgrade, one measurement of quality control was performed in the Department for Chemistry and Chemical Technology, in the Department for Machine engineering, Electronics and General Technique of the Patent Sector each and two measurements of quality control were performed in the Trademark Department as units that perform certified processes. Apart from that, one internal checkup of the entire system was performed as well as one re-examination of system by the management.
Training was performed with the aim to get the six new employees acquainted with the System Quality and the management of quality, and five new employees were trained in the domain of the performance of internal check-ups in compliance with the standard ISO 9001:2015. With regard to the proposed and initiated corrective measures, in the previous year, 20 proposals of current corrective measures were proposed, including 12 that reached conclusion. Apart from that, 11 proposals of the supplementary corrective measures were proposed on the basis of the performed internal checkups, external checkups, quality measurement and risk analysis, including three that were concluded. At the same time, 29 proposals for supplementary measures were concluded, as well as four proposals of current measures initiated before 2018. In the course of 2018, the examination of the pleasure of the users with the service of patent and petty patent was conducted, along with the examination of the service of the grant of the national trademark, with the following results: 46% of examined users were very satisfied with the service of patent grant and petty patent grant in the Department for Chemistry and Chemical Technology and the Department for Machine Engineering, Electronics and General Technology of the Patent Sector, 46% of the examiners were satisfied with this service and 8% were not satisfied. In the Trademark Department, 73% of the examined users were very satisfied with the service of trademark grant, while 27% were satisfied with this service. Apart from the mentioned, in the course of 2018, a draft was prepared for the amended Rules of Procedure of Quality Control in compliance with the new standard ISO 9001:2015 in particular in the part referring to goals of quality control, physical boundaries of the system as well as the internal and external issues, then the upgrading of the six procedures of the process level was performed as well as the six working procedures of the examination department of the Patent Sector, and five working procedures of the Trademark Department. Upgraded procedures of the process level referred to: procedure that regulates offering of services, then the training of experts, conducting polls of opinion, re-examination by the management as well as contracts on giving services between the examination departments of the Patent Sector and the Department for Registers or the Department for Legal Issues of the Patent Sector. Upgrading working procedure of the Examination Departments of the Patent Sector referred to the following: quality measurement, additional tasks, preparation of the application of the petty patent for a final decision, preparation of the patent application for publication, search and elaboration of the report on the state of the art and procedures for substantive examination. Upgrading of the working procedure of the Trademark Department also referred to the description of tasks, methodology, tools used while working, search and entry of data into IPAS. Regular supervision of the Quality System was successfully conducted on November 2, 2018 by the certification body “SGS Beograd, Ltd.
Continuation of the data exchange with the EPO: published patent data sharing and maintenance of the EP federated register service.
IPO provides regular assistance to countries in automation systems improvement and during the visits of delegation from Uzbekistan, South African Republic and Montenegro, experience on use of IPAS were shared.
IPO plans to establish the regular patent data exchange with the WIPO, providing full text of published patent documents and procedural updates regarding national phase of the PCT patents.
Main areas of patent information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
E-filing, new Espacenet, QaS, WIPO Patent OCR, WIPO Publish, IPCPub, IPC translating in the IPCR online environment
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and grants with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
National patent applications in 2018
Patent applications filed by domestic applicants:
162, -5.2 % compared to 2017 (173)
Foreign applications filed directly at the IPO:
5, -37,5 % compared to 2017 (8)
PCT applications entered national phase:
7, 700% compared to 2017 (1)
TOTAL National patent applications: 174, -4.4% compared to 2017 (182)
Requests for validation of EP patents in Republic of Serbia in 2018:
1426, +21.5 % compared to 2017 (1174)
National patent applications filed in 2018 by the field of technology:
13% Health; Lifesaving; Entertainment
12.7% Instruments
11.5% Transport
10% Electrotechnique
10% Agriculture, food products
8% Engines and pumps
7.5% Separating; Mixing
6.3% Organic chemistry
6.3% Personal and household goods
5.2% Civil Engineering
19.5% Other
PCT applications filed at Serbian IPO as a Receiving office in 2018
20, +11% compared to 2017 (18)
Petty patent applications in 2018
70, -6.7% compared to 2017 (75)
Requests for the supplementary protection certificate in 2018
17, +70% compared to 2017 (10)
Number of patents granted in 2018
Domestic patentee: 36, +3% compared to 2017 (35)
Foreign patentee: 8, -33 % compared to 2017 (12)
Validation of European patents with RS office: 1485, +22% compared to 2017 (1217)
TOTAL: 1526, +21% compared to 2017 (1264)
Number of petty patents granted in 2018
53, +23% compared to 2017 (43)
Number of valid patents in 2018
5685 in 2018, +22.4% compared to 4644 in 2017
Number of valid petty patents in 2018
227, +7% compared to 2017 (212)
TOTAL: 5912,+21.7% compared to 2017 (4856)
The inflow of patent applications filed in the course of 2018 by domestic institutes and faculties has increased for 19% in comparison to 2017 and was the highest in the last five years, whereby 46% applications filed by scientific and research institutions in the field of chemistry and chemical technology and 45% in the field of information and communication technologies. The number of the registered patents in 2018 has increased for 21% in comparison to 2017 and this been three times larger than in 2012. Apart from the mentioned, despite the reduced number of employees in the tasks of patent protection, the backlog of applications has been reduced for 10% in comparison to 2017.
In the course of 2018, time has been reduced for the grant of patent protection for 10% in comparison to 2017, and the Office has been recognized by the EPO as a example of the national institution successfully implementing and contributing to the development of the EPOQUENet program for state of the art searches. In the framework of the program of the bilateral cooperation with the EPO, in May 2018, a seminar has been organized lasting for two days about patents in the field of pharmacy where the experiences of the experts from the EPO and IPO in the field of patent protection in pharmacy have been exchanged as well as the experiences in the domestic economy and science. Apart from that, the patent lawyers were engaged on the project of INPADOC administered by the EPO, with the aim to unite the reviews of legal status of national patents which contribute to the improvement of the business ambiance through Europe. The improvement of the business atmosphere in Serbia was contributed to by the enforcement of the Law on the Amendments of the Law on Patents, adopted by the National Parliament in the December of 2018. It simplified the administration of patent and petty patent registers and made precise the procedure for the request referring to the certificates for supplementary protection of medicaments and means for the protection of plants. Thanks to the active participation of patent experts in the working groups of the World Intellectual Property Organization, the IPO, in 2018, simplified the approach for the new technologies through the search of patent documentation in such a way that the International Patent Classification has been translated into Serbian and placed on the web site of the IPO in its latest edition – IPC 2018.01. Also, at the beginning of the March 2018, it has been enabled to file the international patent classification (PCT applications ) in the electronic form, for which it acts as the receiving office by the implementation of the e-PCT portal.
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
Website of the IPO is updated daily with the news in Serbian language and in English only those of greater importance. The news webpage is the homepage of IPO website www.zis.gov.rs
Annual reports from 2006: http://www.zis.gov.rs/about-us/annual-report.106.html
Electronic Newsletter: http://www.zis.gov.rs/newsletter.308.html
Legislation on IPR: http://www.zis.gov.rs/legal-regulations/laws-and-regulations.110.html
International Clasiffication system IPC 2019.1 available for search in Serbian – WIPO interface:
Helpdesk contact – Education and Information Center: info.eic@zis.gov.rs
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
IPO Serbia has a public library where all persons can get the consultancy in person for patent filing from the patent examiners. Through Education and Information center and the seminars it delivers to the participants, information on patent system and the proceedings as well as patent drafting are the topics which are included in basic and advanced training modules. Each month on third Thursday, Open Door event is organized for customer’s consultancy beside the opportunity to have them every day on regular basis. Open door: 12 occasions, 59 customers visited IPO.
Client consultancy in accordance to the topics:
Patent protection – 842
Trademark protection – 1391
Copyrights – 224
Industrial design – 75
Enforcement matters – 77
TOTAL: 2609 customers
E-filing user guide, electronic certificates description and installation manuals, recommendations how to prepare the proper documentation and graphic data format for application – all is accessible over http://eusluge.zis.gov.rs/doc/
Also, all of these were introduced to user community through seminars, periodical and permanent (once a month – general IP education open for public) EIC activities (http://www.zis.gov.rs/about-eic/eic-charter.392.html).
E-filing system for IP rights is fully functional and is improved on the back-office side with common dispatch module in 2016. The general information available on http://www.zis.gov.rs/registri/e-podnosenje.1113.html ; the production E-filing website on URL https://eusluge.zis.gov.rs.
Instructions for drafting patent application and for the process of patent filling are available at the website as well as the examples of formally correct patent applications from the different fields. All forms and guidelines are available at the following link:
http://www.zis.gov.rs/prava-intelektualne-svojine/patenti/obrasci,-uputstva-i-primeri.898.html
The scheme of the proceedings for patent and petty patent applications with the description and the deadlines is available at the following link. http://www.zis.gov.rs/prava-intelektualne-svojine/patenti/postupak.900.html
FAQ on patent proceedings: http://www.zis.gov.rs/intellectual-property-rights/patents/most-frequently-asked.60.html
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
Patent and petty patent registers and SPC database are available in the electronic form since 2014. Bibliographic data and legal status of the patent application filed starting with year 1994 are available in the register, with links to the published patent documents.
The full application dossier in electronic form is not publicly available. All published patent documents since Office’s foundation 1921 with few gaps in early years are available at Publication server and can be searched with all possible criteria within the MIMOSA search software.
Online patent databases and tools are available at the following link: http://www.zis.gov.rs/databases/patent-databases.419.html
Classification1, preclassification2 (if applicable), reclassification3 activities; classification systems used (e.g., International Patent Classification (IPC)); matters concerning indexing of patent information
IPO uses International Patent Classification system (IPC). The classification of the patent applications is captured in the IPAS database. IPO patent examiners use WIPO IPCR online system to capture IPC translation updates. The translation is published on the upgraded IPCPub platform which is provided by WIPO and installed and maintained by the office IT department. Translated IPC versions as well as the last one IPC 2019.1 are available in the Serbian and English language at the following link: http://www.zis.gov.rs/databases/patent-databases.419.html
Abstracting, reviewing, and translation of the information contained in patent documents
All granted patent and petty patent are published with the abstract on the first page. The abstracts and titles are translated in English and entered into MIMOSA RS database in Serbian and English languages. Espacenet RS is updated on the regular basis, following the publication of each IPO-RS Official gazette. Patent description translation to other languages is possible within the Espacenet machine translation feature. Retrieved patent documents are available for the review and download in the PDF format
Other activities
III. SOURCES OF PATENT INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications of the Office (patent applications, full text, first pages, abstracts, bibliographic data, granted patents, etc.), medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
Official IPO Gazette contains bibliographic data with the abstracts in Serbian and English on published patent applications, registered patents, registered petty patents and CPC. Full text of all published patent documents in Gazette, are available on Publication server and they can be searched by the application/publication number, IPC symbol, document kind and publication date on the following URL address and they are available in PDF format. The documents are scanned and cannot be searched by key words in full text. http://www.zis.gov.rs/databases/patent-databases.419.html
IT and Publishing department of IPO prints in-house whole patent documents after the grant of patent/petty patent as well as patent certificates, application forms as well as guide for drafting the patent application. Patent documentation in paper is still available but not for public use in separate room at the Office.
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URL), etc.
Intellectual Property Gazette is the basic official source of information about all intellectual property rights. IP Gazette is issued monthly since the end of 2016. Since the beginning of 2012 the Intellectual Property Gazette is published only in electronic form in PDF format on the website of the IPO at the following link. http://www.zis.gov.rs/информационе-услуге.48.html
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external collections and databases
All the searches at the Office are computerized. Each working station has fast internet access and patent databases are accessible through it. National database in electronic form primarily was internal and in 2009 became publicly on-line available. MIMOSA professional search software for advanced search through published national patent documents can be installed by user and then the search can be conducted. Internally, WIPO IPAS administration system is used for administration of patent applications. 97 093 nationally published patent documents are available through MIMOSA search software. IPO's examiners are provided with access to the professional database EPOQUE-net through secure connection with EPO server. This database is used since 2009 for examination matters together with all free available databases of patent and non-patent literature. Access to the scientific non-patent literature is obtained through KoBSON system of National library of Serbia.
Information products and patent document collections (coverage, medium, etc.) available to external users, conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
The Public library or public reading room is part of the office’s Education and Information Center. At the library at 4 workstations, individuals can perform free individual or assisted search through national patent documentation through MIMOSA software (97 093 documents), Espacenet as well as through Trademark and Design national databases. National databases and registers also can be accessed on-line as well as through MIMOSA software with the instruction for use, Espacenet RS or Espacenet Worldwide free of charge.
Legal status information (kind of information, coverage, medium, etc.)
Legal status of retrieved documents is available in the electronic Patent register for all documents since 1994. The register inscriptions are available since the year 2015, when the office established electronic patent register. Patent register is available at the following link: http://www.zis.gov.rs/databases/patent-databases.419.html
The older register inscriptions, before year 2015, are still available in the paper form and can be viewed free of charge. Every person can obtain excerpts from the paper register by submitting relevant request and paying a service fee to the account of the Office.
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO PATENT INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
For the administration of patent, petty patent and supplementary protection certificate, IPO uses the administrative process management system WIPO IPAS, which is integrated with the EDMS to provide full electronic file. Starting with the year 2017, all incoming IPR related documents are digitized, and stored in EDMS, together with official letters. Reception activity is conducted by the specific module, which is integrated with e-Filing and IPAS systems, so to streamline reception and data capture of the electronic and paper documents.
WIPO Patent OCR proofreading platform is used for the preparation of the patent documents publication and full text. This platform uses Abby Fine Reader OCR server, and it is optimized to efficiently regularly process high workload of tens thousands of document pages in the batch procedures. This platform is expanded with custom scripts for the generation of the different document formats for the different publication and data dissemination systems.
In the processes of search and patent granting, office patent examiners use EPOQUE Net, the professional patent information retrieval tool, provided by European Patent Office. Program connects to EPO patent databases via the Patent secured network. The current EPOQUE Net program version is deployed at the office.
WIPO PUBLISH platform is implemented in the testing environment. WIPO Publish provides contemporary user interface through customizable web pages, and enables advanced search, powered by the underlying search engine SOLR. The updated program versions are regularly tested and deployed.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
IPO is connected to the Internet provider by the direct optical connection, at the increased bandwidth of 50/50 Mbps. The connection is secured with the advanced firewall equipment. The server infrastructure is gradually virtualized using existing servers and data storage. The user workstations are partially renewed. Cartridge tape system is used for system wide data backup.
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
Patent files are available in the IPAS database starting with the filing year 1990. Patent data for the publication in the Gazette are extracted monthly from the IPAS database. Bibliographic data are transformed into ST36 format and loaded into MIMOSA RS database and also shared with the WIPO and EPO. Data in the electronic patent register are automatically refreshed each day.
Increasing part of patent description documents is received in electronic form, mostly from the patent representatives. The majority of regional patent validation requests and subsequent documents are submitted electronically. The regional patent bibliographic data are automatically loaded into internal databases from the EPO’s weekly EBD files. Also, in 2018 for the purpose of data exchange with the EPO database Espacenet, the Espacenet New project is in effect at the office and in Espacenet complete patent documents with RS country code since 2006 can be found in it. In 2018 the regular monthly provision of the full-text for the published documents is provided, within the ongoing EPO project quality-at-source. Paper documents are scanned in the WIPO Scan and EPO Scan systems. Patent files are kept in the EDMS system. Preparation for the publication of the patent documents is conducted in the customized WIPO Patent OCR platform. The publication of the Gazette is accompanied with the publication of the respective published patent documents on the Publication server.
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
Databases used for searching by patent examiners internally accessible are: national patent documentation through MIMOSA RS, EPOQUENET database of EPO - search of database of patent documents that are on the servers of the European Patent Office. Other national databases are used regularly.
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
IPAS is administrative system for management of patents and all other industrial property rights (trademarks, designs). The new electronic E-filing system was launched in 2017 and available on http://www.zis.gov.rs/registri/e-podnosenje.1163.html. It requires locally approved digital certificates for electronic signature to submit the applications and subsequent documents. This enables users to electronically submit different kinds of requests.
The legal status of the granted regional patents is available through the EPOs Federated Register Service (see http://www.zis.gov.rs/databases/federated-register-service-for-european-patents.695.html). Serbian IP office was among the first EPO member states which implemented the second phase of the Federated Register Project - federated retrieval. The web service is internally developed and maintained in the IPO-RS.
IPO developed data exchange tools for providing to WIPO the legal status updates of the PCT patents in the national phase in Serbia.
IPO prepares the authority file for the published patent documents.
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF PATENT INFORMATION
Patent library: equipment, collection management, network of patent libraries in the country, cooperation with foreign patent libraries
The IPO continually checks and amends bibliographical data and in such a way improves the national patent data base of documents MIMOSA RS. Also, in the course of 2018, 4375 newly published patent documents were placed in the database MIMOSA RS which are available for online searching. National patent collection in electronics formats now consists of: 43 169 published patent applications (A, A1,A2, A3), 52 319 (B, B1) granted patents and 1 612 petty patents (U, U1) since 1921. Newly published patent documents were regularly uploaded in ESPACENET database.
http://www.zis.gov.rs/left/databases.421.html
Publications related to different business procedures and patent information sources available to users, for example, books, brochures, Internet publications, etc.
Education and Information Center (EIC) of the IPO publishes EIC Newsletter with information about important subjects in the field of intellectual property. The EIC Newsletter is intended for all organizations and individuals involved in intellectual property or seeking knowledge in this field. The EIC Newsletter offers informative and educative thematic articles and other important information in the field of intellectual property. The Newsletter is available via official website of the EIC: http://www.zis.gov.rs/sources-of-information/newsletter.302.html
Cooperation with universities, research centers, technology and innovation support centers, etc.
The Education and information Centre (EIC) of the IPO provides support in the form of a service of disseminating information and education realized through consultations and conducting training, seminars and workshops aiming identification, protection, management and exploitation of the results of research taking into account that intellectual property is created in research institutions. In a broader context this helps to promote innovation - transformation of ideas into products, processes and technologies benefiting society as a whole.
Stimulating universities and other public research institutions to be more active in protecting and exploiting, the EIC held many seminars for professors, researches and students.
Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
IPO Serbia has a public library where all persons can get the personal consultancy for trademark filings and procedures. Through Education and Information center and the seminars, information on trademark system and the proceedings are delivered to the public. Each month on third Thursday, Open Door event is organized in IPO for customer’s consultations beside the opportunity for consultations every day on regular basis.
Wide scope of education and information services is adjusted to the various target groups including: business companies and institutions that offer support to business, organizations involved in R&D, institutions of high education, institutions for the enforcement of the intellectual property rights and others. The education is performed in the form of lectures, seminars, conferences, consultations on protection, use and management of intellectual property rights. In 2018, 41 seminars were delivered to different stakeholders groups with 1272 participants. 17 seminars were delivered to universities, 11 for SMEs, 6 for general public, 5 for R&D institutes and 2 seminars for enforcement institutions. Small and medium enterprises are specially offered the service designed in particular for them, Intellectual Property Pre-diagnosis and “1to1” consultations and altogether 47 of such services were delivered. The Office was present at the 5 trade fairs as well as at two fairs dedicated to for lower level of education (primary and secondary schools), “Science is not a boogieman” and “Researcher’s night”, offering consultations during and information on different IP issues.
E-filing user guide, electronic certificates description and installation manuals, recommendations how to prepare the proper documentation and graphic data format for application – all is accessible through link:
http://www.zis.gov.rs/registri/e-podnosenje.1163.html
E-filing system for IP rights was prepared and started in April 2016.
http://www.zis.gov.rs/registri/e-podnosenje.1113.html
Other activities
The number of offered services regarding the search of patent documentation was higher for 8% in comparison to 2017 and has been the highest in the last four years, including 70% of requests referring to the field of chemistry, in particular to active substances of medicaments.
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF PATENT INFORMATION
International exchange and sharing of patent information in machine-readable form, e.g., priority documents, bibliographic data, abstracts, search reports, full text information
Full text of published patent documents with search reports is shared with EPO and WIPO in the scope of the EPO’s project Quality at Source. Serbian IPO established monthly delivery of the produced full text for the published patent documents, together with the bibliographic data in the ST36 format
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to patent information
In the year 2018, IPO continued data exchange with WIPO of the PCT National Phase legal status updates. IPO started uses ePCT platform for administering national phase of the PCT patent procedure.
In 2018, the Serbian IP Office continued exchange with EPO Federated Register, Espacenet New and Quality at Source project cards.
Serbian IPO actively participated in the activities of the pilot group for the introduction of the new EPO patent e-filing hosted web application (Hosted Filing Solution - HFS). Serbian IPO conducted customization of the New Espacenet user interface.
IPO staff participated at PATLIB and EPO Patent information conferences in 2019.
Assistance to developing countries
IT Department of the office developed and maintained the following programs for patent data dissemination and exchange, which are available for other IP offices in the region:
- EP Post Grant modules (Article 39 of the European Patent Convention, renewal fees),
- EP Federated register service
IT Department of the office supported EP Post grant modules and EP Federated register service in USBM, San Marino. Support has been provided also for patent E-register and Federated register service in Romania.
There were several visits to Serbian IPO of the delegations from regional IP offices of: Uzbekistan, South African Republic and Montenegro. IPO presented internal ICT system and online services: WIPO Suite, EDMS, e-Filing, Publication tools and patent search. Also, the other activities of the office were presented within the patent procedures, examination matters and search matters, as well as methodology of Intellectual property pre-diagnosis service.
The following activities are foreseen in the scope of the regional cooperation in the year 2019:
- Support for WIPO Suite implementation in Belarus, Uzbekistan, San Marino, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro
- EP Post grant modules implementation and support in San Marino, Tunisia, Albania and North Macedonia
1.Classification is allotting one or more classification symbols (e.g., IPC symbols) to a patent application, either before or during search and examination, which symbols are then published with the patent application.
2. Preclassification is allotting an initial broad classification symbol (e.g., IPC class or subclass, or administrative unit) to a patent application, using human or automated means for internal administrative purposes (e.g., routing an application to the appropriate examiner). Usually preclassification is applied by the administration of an office.
3. Reclassification is the reconsideration and usually the replacement of one or more previously allotted classification symbols to a patent document, following a revision and the entry into force of a new version of the Classification system (e.g., the IPC). The new symbols are available on patent databases.