The information and resources presented on this library guide are intended to support academic purposes of patent searching, such as identifying the "state-of-the-art" of technologies or conducting historical research regarding inventions. None of the information provided should be considered as legal advice or an interpretation of the law.
For questions or guidance regarding legal matters involving intellectual property, including patentability / novelty, freedom to operate / infringement, or validity / enforcement readiness, contact the Wyoming Technology Transfer and Research Products Center. Faculty, staff, and students of the University of Wyoming are governed by UW Regulation 9-1 on Patents and Copyrights, which specifies that inventions and works created through the use of University resources are the property of the University.
Searching by patent classification code circumvents many of the limitations of keyword searching for locating records and documents about inventions.
Two patent classification systems are currently in use:
Note that the CPC replaced the former United States Patent Classification System (USPC) in January 2015 and the European Classification System (ECLA) in 2013. The CPC can be searched with keywords using the Classification Search function in the Espacenet database.