MPEP Section 902.04, Classification Orders

Executive summary:

This document contains Section 902.04 ("Classification Orders ") of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (the "M.P.E.P."), Eighth Edition, Eighth Revision (July 2010). This page was last updated in January 2011. You may return to the section index to find a particular section. Alternatively, you may search the MPEP using the search box that appears on the left side of every page of BitLaw--you may restrict your search to the MPEP on the search results page.

For more information on patent law, please see the Patent Section of BitLaw. For patent services, see the Beck & Tysver pages.

Previous Section (§902.03(e)) | Next Section (§902.04(a))

902.04 Classification Orders [R-5]

Classification orders **>are issued monthly; each order details the changes resulting from a classification project effective< that month.

Since classification projects issue monthly throughout the year, orders are used to bridge the gap between the time a project issues and the time the other search tools (Manual of Classification, Index to the *>U.S. Patent Classification System<, Classification Definitions) are updated.

*>A classification< order includes the following:

(A) **>New< class schedules *>and/or< changes to existing class schedules necessitated by the project;

**>

(B) < Source and Disposition lists showing how the old art has been distributed into the newly established subclasses; *

*>

(C) < A revised concordance showing the relationship between the newly established subclasses and their International Patent Classification (IPC) counterparts>; and

(D) Necessary changes to the definitions that corroborate the changes in the schedules<

Copies of classification orders are available online to USPTO personnel from the Classification Home Page under the heading Classification Reports. The Classification Home Page >(http://ptoweb:8081/)< is accessible from the desktop via the Patent Examiner's Toolkit.