Are U.S. utility patents still classified under the USPC system?
No, U.S. utility patents published after December 31, 2014, are no longer classified under the U.S. Patent Classification System (USPC). According to MPEP 902:
“All U.S. utility patents and U.S. utility Patent Application Publications published after December 31, 2014 no longer receive classifications within the USPC. The USPC is now a static searchable database for all utility areas.”
This means that while the USPC remains a valuable resource for searching older patents, new utility patents are now classified using the Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) system.
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