Europe and US to merge patent classification

Patent regime takes another hesitant step towards global harmonisation

One patent filing to rule them all

The European and US patent authorities have agreed to merge their classification systems based on the European model, with the aim of making it easier for innovators to file patents in multiple geographies.

The move is another step in the long journey by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to reform its creaking operations and will help the European Commission achieve its aim of a single EU patent regime.

The two patent offices have agreed to work together to harmonise their patent classification systems with the International Patent Classification (IPC), which is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) under the auspices of the United Nations. The European system (ECLA) is a superset of the IPC.

“The USPTO and the European Patent Office (EPO) have agreed …to explore the development of a joint classification system based on ECLA that will incorporate the best classification practices of the two offices,” said USPTO director David Kappos and EPO president Benoît Battistelli in a joint statement.

This also achieves one of the 10 goals of the IP5, an organisation formed to promote co-operation between patent offices in the EU, US, Korea, Japan and China.

Patent law, the classification systems under which patents are filed, and patent enforcement rules currently vary from one jurisdiction to another. This means that companies have to file in every territory in which they want to protect a patented product.

Hence patent administrations are seeking to harmonise their rules so one filing can cover as many jurisdictions as possible.

Recently the European Commission has stepped up calls for harmonising patent rules within the EU so as to encourage businesses and public sector organisations to innovate, an aim that is at the heart of the Commission’s Europe 2020 strategy and Digital Agenda for Europe.

Meanwhile, the USPTO has been struggling for some years to reform its patent system, which Kappos has admitted costs the US economy billions of dollars in lost revenue and job opportunities owing to a massive backlog.

Patent analysts have commented that much of the US problem stems from its allowance of so-called business-method patents, which are not permissible under the European system.