US PATENT CLASS 976
Class Notes
Current as of: June, 1999
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DEFINITION
Classification: 976/
Note the following for Class 976:
(A) Class 976 is used for optional searching.
(B) Digests 1-445 are established in direct correspondence to selected portions of the European Patent Office Classification (EPOC), which itself is an expansion on the International Patent Classification (IPC). Each Digest represents a single "subgroup" from the EPOC. All "subgroups" and "main groups" within EPOC Class G21, NUCLEAR PHYSICS, NUCLEAR ENGINEERING have been included. Note: EPOC "subclasses" (e.g., G21B, G21C, etc.) have not been represented here by Digests. The specific EPOC "subgroup" for each Digest is presented within square brackets at the end of each title in the Class schedule. At the time of introduction of these digests, they contain only U.S. patents as classified by EPO personnel.
(C) Digests 1-445 are presented as part of a trial program to learn whether the use of multiple diverse classifications of essential the same documents would be beneficial to examiners and to learn what the benefits might be.