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Patent classification
Patent classifications are intended for classifying inventions and technical solutions according to their belonging to a certain field of technology for the purpose of searching them when conducting various types of patent searches and investigations, e.g. searches for novelty of an invention or technical solution, for determining the state of the art in the relevant field of technology, for patent purity of an invention, etc.
Patent classifications are used by the authorities competent in the field of industrial property as one of the technical bibliographic data for the publication of patent or utility model applications, the disclosure of granted patents or registered utility models or other types of industrial law protection for inventions or technical solutions.
In order to carry out patent searches by field of technology, it is necessary to be familiar with not only the current patent classification systems, but also with older systems whose symbols appear on documents with an earlier issue date or in some databases.