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Why is the IPC going to be divided into core and advanced levels?

Experience with the current IPC shows that for some users (small patent offices or occasional searchers), 70 000 IPC entries are too much; this amount gives too much detail and makes it very difficult to classify correctly or identify the classification codes to be searched. For classifying small national collections of documents, a very detailed classification system is simply not needed and just makes the administration of such a collection unnecessarily complicated. The solution to this is to have a “core level” of about 20 000 classifications, which will only be revised when absolutely necessary and will therefore remain stable and reliable for a big community of users. All documents will have at least a core-level classification.

For large offices or experienced searchers, on the other hand, the current IPC is not detailed enough. These groups would prefer a system that can be easily extended to include more classifications and quickly adapted to new technical developments. The “advanced level” will fulfil this requirement by allowing updates to be made every three months, which means it will grow considerably in the years ahead. The advanced level is a superset of the core level, ie it consists of all core level groups and many finer subdivisions. All documents of the PCT minimum documentation will have an advanced-level IPC. They will also have a core level IPC that is derived from the advanced level.