Development of the EPO and USPTO bilateral classification
system
Anyone who has tried to use the United States Patent
Classification (USPC) will know how notoriously difficult it is to
understand, especially if your initial experience with patent
classification is with the International Patent Classification
(IPC) or the European Classification System (ECLA). The Cooperative
Patent Classification (CPC) is a joint effort between the European
Patent Office (EPO) and the United States Patent and Trademark
Office (USPTO) to harmonise their existing classification systems.
It has been in development for just over a year and is expected to
be launched on 1 January 2013.
The CPC won't be eliminating the IPC, at least not yet. Most
countries have migrated from their own national classification
systems to the IPC, with the US being the notable exception, but
the CPC is a bilateral system with distant hopes of being
introduced to other jurisdictions. I expect that the IPC
