New classification for patents on additive manufacturing
To facilitate patent information searches, the Offices have introduced a new sub-class which covers additive manufacturing separate from the process or material used.
Faced with the expansion of patents relating to the techniques of additive manufacturing and the importance of these technologies for the industry, the Patents Offices have introduced subclass B33Y in the 2015.01 version of the CPC (Cooperative Patent Classification).
B33Y | ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING, i.e. MANUFACTURING OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL [3-D] OBJECTS BY ADDITIVE DEPOSITION, ADDITIVE AGGLOMERATION OR ADDITIVE LAYERING, e.g. BY 3-D PRINTING, STEREOLITHOGRAPHY OR SELECTIVE LASER SINTERING |
B33Y10/00 | Processes of additive manufacturing |
B33Y30/00 | Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor |
B33Y40/00 | Auxiliary operations or equipment, e.g. for material handling |
B33Y50/00 | Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing |
B33Y70/00 | Materials specially adapted for additive manufacturing |
B33Y80/00 | Products made by additive manufacturing |
B33Y99/00 | Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass |
Even if this new classification simplifies the work of searching the patent databases, in many cases this remains specialist work requiring professional tools.
For this purpose please contact the Sirris Patents Cell.
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