United Kingdom Classification (UKC) key

What is the UKC?

To help in searching through patent documents we classify them according to their disclosure and the nature of the claimed invention. The UKC is the classification scheme that we used to use. We stopped applying UKC terms to our documents on 1 July 2007 and now only record the International Patent Classification (IPC) on the front pages of our documents.

What is classified to the UKC?

Before 1 July 2007 we classified all of the British applications we considered to the UKC. At times we also classified certain other collections of documents to the UKC, most notably US, EP and WO. A definitive guide of what was covered and when is available in our Documentation Record.

Is the UKC still used?

We stopped applying UKC terms to our documents on 1 July 2007. However, some documents may still be published with UKC terms up to January 2009.

As with many things in life there are exceptions. We continue to classify disclosures relating to laminates and alloys to the UKC. We have a long standing agreement with the European Patent Office to do this as our classification terms in these areas help them with their reclassifications. Specifically, we continue to apply classification marks in UKC Headings B5N (81Kb) and C7A (41Kb).

We maintain an electronic record of the documents classified to the UKC. Some of our examiners use this as part of their search investigations.

We do not intend to make any further changes to the terms of UKC or to classify any new documents to it.

Documentation on the UKC

The definitions of the UKC are contained in Sections A-H:

Additional supporting documentation on the UKC:

The Universal Indexing Schedule associated with the UKC: