Patent classification for file format encoding/decoding algorithm

Question

I am aware that certain algorithms to generate or read digital file formats can be patented.

Patents on computer file formats

I am attempting to reverse engineer a particular file format that I did not design, and want to make sure the algorithms that generate and read this file format have not been patented.

I have been attempting to do a patent search, and have read that a important start in performing a patent search is identifying the patent classification that the process falls into.

Can someone help me identify what classification a file format generation or decoding algorithm would fall into?

Answer 1

The classification systems can be confusing. In the U.S., besides the old USPC, we now have the CPC which is based on a more international system. Somewhat analogous to imperial units vs metric. The CPc is a result of work between the EPO and the USPTO that starts with the ECLA and adds many sub-classifications to be as fine grained as the U.S. system. The only other major system for utility patents is the international IPC which originated the format used by the ECLA and CPC. It is not very fine grained.

. This is a list of the USPC major sections by number. At this level it looks like 707 Data processing: database and file management or data structures might be good. But that is a class. Under it are many many subclasses.

In the CPC system the computer technology hierarchy starts at G06F ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING One of the classes below it is G06F 16/1794 . . . . {Details of file format conversion} another is G06F 2205/003 . Reformatting, i.e. changing the format of data representation

Specific to encoding I found a page at the CPC that gives an overview of where one might look for various forms or reasons for encoding. Crypto, compression, error correction, etc. under H03M.

The UPC concordance with this is class 341, not one of the 700's.

Answer 2

Wikipedia has an interesting article on software patents. Within that article is a table listing US classification codes to descriptions and number of patents issued. The codes range from 700 to 726. Other countries may have equivalent classification codes. I don't think there is a single code that may be relevant. For instance 710 is "Electrical Computers and Digital Data Processing Systems: Input/Output", but there are several others that might be applicable too depending on the application.

What I would do is to search for relevant patents to your technology and see how they are classified. Use the most common classification codes to search by code to find other relevant patents.