Registered Survey Agency Business
REGISTERED SURVEY ORGANIZATION BUSINESSWhat is the Registered Survey Agency Business?
A registered search organization is a search organization registered by the Commissioner of the Japan Patent Office based on the "Act on Special Exceptions to Procedures, etc. Concerning Industrial Property Rights".
*JPO " About Registered Search Organization (Professional Group for Prior Art Literature Search) "
*e-Gov Act on Special Provisions for Procedures, etc. Concerning Industrial Property Rights
IPCC supports patent examination and the patent system in Japan as the largest registered search organization covering all technical fields and as the only registered search organization in charge of the classification assignment business.
Prior Art Search PRIOR ART SEARCH
Prior art searches in patent prosecution and registered search organizations
In Japan alone, approximately 300,000 new patents are created every year, and if we look at the world, millions of patents are accumulated every year. In a prior art search, we search through this vast amount of technical information to find the desired prior art.
In the patent examination conducted by the JPO, a prior art search must be conducted to confirm whether the invention meets the requirements for patentability, such as novelty and inventive step. In order to efficiently process the huge volume of applications, the JPO subcontracts the prior art search to a registered search organization and proceeds with the patent examination based on the results of the search.
Registered searchers are granted access to the JPO's patent literature search system, which is similar to that used by patent examiners. This system is used to search, screen, and interactively explain search results to the patent examiner.
As the largest registered search organization for all fields of technology, the IPCC contributes to expediting and improving the quality of patent prosecution.
Contribution to Intellectual Property Nation" expected from registered search organizations.
The introduction of a mechanism to subcontract prior art searches to IPCC and other registered search organizations, among others, has expedited the examination process at the JPO and significantly shortened the waiting period for examination order. In addition to maintaining this accelerated examination process, registered search organizations are expected to make further contributions to improving the quality of examination. In particular, foreign patent document searches are becoming increasingly important for prior art searches in the global economy, and the "Foreign Patent Document Search Option" was introduced in FY2013.
As the largest registered search organization with many experienced and specialized engineers, IPCC steadily catches up with various cutting-edge technologies in the world and supports Japanese patent examination through high-quality searches.
Prior art survey results (cumulative)
Classification Granting Business CLASSIFICATION
What is the assignment of classification to a patent application, etc.?
For example, in the library, the classification assigned to each book makes it easy to find the desired book from a vast number of books.
In the same way, each patent application is assigned a patent classification, allowing you to efficiently find the desired document among the vast number of patent applications filed in the past. Patent classifications include the International Patent Classification (IPC), which is used in a unified manner internationally, and FI, F-term, etc., which are Japanese original classifications, and a classification corresponding to the technical information of each patent document is assigned. When conducting a prior art search, these patent classifications are used as search keys to search for documents, etc. Therefore, it is extremely important that the classifications are assigned accurately and without omissions.
Currently, the IPCC, as a registered search organization, assigns patent classifications to patent applications from all over the world that are received by the Japan Patent Office. As the only registered search organization responsible for assigning classifications, the IPCC supports the construction of the patent literature database at the JPO.
Classification assignment projects essential for prior art research
The IPCC grants FIs and F-Terms to patent applications prior to publication, and re-grants F-Terms, etc. to published gazettes (re-granting newly created F-Terms and FIs in line with technological developments).
When assigning a patent application a classification, we receive the electronic data of the subject application from the JPO and first identify which technical field the technical content belongs to using our proprietary system (automatic broad classification process). After that, a specialized engineer in the field in charge of the application assigns the classification. However, in the case of a patent application that covers multiple fields of technology, we may request a specialized engineer in another field to assign the classification. In order to accurately and completely assign a patent classification, it is essential to have a team of technical experts who are familiar with all technical fields, and this can only be done by IPCC, which has technical experts in all technical fields.
The assigned classifications are sampled and checked by JPO examiners to improve the accuracy of the assignment. The finalized granted data is stored in the patent document search system and published in published patent gazettes, etc., for use in prior art searches by patent offices and search firms around the world.
The IPCC is supporting the intellectual property nation and the world's innovation behind the scenes.
Classification Granted (by year)
