[Ecommerce] WIPO: TK based inventions AND business methods to be incorporated in the Intern.Patent Classification

[Manon Anne Ress]

http://www.ipr-helpdesk.org

WIPO. Proposal to incorporate classification schemes for traditional 
knowledge based inventions and business methods into the IPC

The International Patent Classification (IPC) Revision Working Group of 
the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) decided to propose 
the incorporation of schemes for the classification of certain 
traditional knowledge (TK) based inventions and business methods patents 
into the IPC. (The IPC is a system to effectively retrieve patent 
information).

The proposal includes the establishment of a new category of information 
on traditional medicine based on the use of plants, which represents an 
important part of TK. This category would comprise more than 200 
subdivisions.

The Working Group also proposes to incorporate a new provisional 
subclass of information relating to business methods. Although the 
patentability of business methods (a common practice in the US patent 
system) continues to be a controversially discussed topic, a scheme to 
classify information contained in business methods patents and patent 
applications is considered to be necessary.

The proposal will now be forwarded to the IPC Committee of Experts for 
approval before its inclusion into the 8th edition of the IPC that will 
enter into force on 1 January 2005.


WIPO June 27, 2003 Press release
http://www.wipo.org/pressroom/en/updates/2003/upd199.htm



-- 
Manon Anne Ress
Consumer Project on Technology
www.cptech.org
PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176