EPO - Discussion forums

What happens to the previous H01L-CPC-Classification in case of the introduction of the new H10? Do H01L-CPC instances which do not correlate to any new H10 instances simply disappear or are they somehow continued? Is the "H01L-CPC" still searchable for applications where it has already been assigned? And if this is possible- does the CPC-viewer allow to display the old "H01L-CPC" and its contents?

Thank you for your reply!

This reclassification is not yet completed so we have forwarded your enquiry to our experts. Until we get their answer, we can already tell you that the CPC viewer, available via ESPACENET contains a option to display notes and warning (toggle found in the menu under the classification search field). The H01L note mentions that this subclass is residual to class H10.
For further details, please see also the IPC Revision Concordance List published by the WIPO at https://ipcpub.wipo.int/?notion=rcl&ver ... mode=smart
Furthermore CPC related material such as scheme files, notices of changes, concordances, etc.. are available in the pre-release area of the CPC website at https://www.cooperativepatentclassifica ... rereleases

Best regards,
User Services Team

What happens to the previous H01L-CPC-Classification in case of the introduction of the new H10:
Do H01L-CPC instances which do not correlate to any new H10 instances simply disappear or are they somehow continued?
=> These H01L subclasses are now residual to the new H10 places. Generally speaking old groups remain in the CPC scheme as long as the CPC reclassification is not completed. Warnings in the old and new groups tell you that reclassification is on-going. When reclassification is completed, the old groups are deleted.

Is the "H01L-CPC" still searchable for applications where it has already been assigned?
=> All CPC subclasses available in the bibliographic data are searchable in ESPACENET. Subclasses where documents have been reclassified (i.e. where no warnings are present anymore) can only be searched using the new classification symbols.

And if this is possible- does the CPC-viewer allow to display the old "H01L-CPC" and its contents?
=> All CPC Notices of Change (NoCs) are available on the CPC website at https://www.cooperativepatentclassifica ... eOfChanges. They can also be accessed from the date and update toggle in the CPC Classification in ESPACENET. Previous scheme versions can be accessed from the archive section in the CPC website.