The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) have agreed to jointly develop a patent classification system on the basis of the European Classification system, ECLA.
The Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, David Kappos, and the President of the EPO, Benoît Battistelli made a joint statement on the move saying, “In view of the significant benefit to stakeholders of developing a transparent and harmonised approach to a global classification system for patent documents; in order to make the search process more effective; and in the belief that cooperation between their two offices will facilitate progress in undertaking classification harmonisation projects,” the two organisations have decided to work together.
The scheme will incorporate the best classification practices of the two offices and be aligned with the World Intellectual Property Organization classification and the International Patent Classification structure.
The USPTO and EPO have now started to discuss governance and operational aspects of the partnership.
Receive the Funding Newswire [full access requires a subscription] each Tuesday, our Policy Bulletin each Thursday, and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
A unique international forum for public research organisations and companies to connect their external engagement with strategic interests around their R&D system.
