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903.02(c) Establishing Subclasses and Cross-Reference Art Col-lections [R-3] - 900 Prior Art, Classification, >and< Search
903.02(c) Establishing Subclasses and Cross-Reference Art Col-lections [R-3]
When an examiner finds it desirable to create a new subclass or cross-reference art collection, the appropriate **>supervisory patent classifier (SPC)< must be consulted before work is begun. The **>SPC< will assist the examiner in establishing any new subclass or cross-reference art collection by providing appropriate instructions on how to transfer patents from an existing subclass to a new subclass, obtaining any additional cross-reference copies that might be needed, determining the title of the newly established subclass or cross-reference art collection, and assigning the numeric designation to be placed on the new subclass or cross-reference art collection.
All newly created subclasses will be made official so as to be a part of the defined classification system **. Any examiner having the Technology Center (TC) Director's approval to create new subclasses should contact the **>SPC< for his or her technology. As workload permits, **>staff< will be assigned to cooperate with the examiner on the arrangement of the subclasses he or she wishes to establish and the definitions thereof. Then, the examiner will *>include< a **>spreadsheet< of the patents in the subclass or subclasses being affected. On a time available basis, the examiner may be aided in this task by >other< classification *>staff<.
** New classification data will be added to the Subclass Data File (SDF) and Master Classification File (MCF) as appropriate, patent copies will be relabeled with the new *>classification< information, and the documents will be refiled in the new classification array. Concurrently, all automated classification indices and systems, including the EAST and WEST search tools, will be updated to reflect the new classification changes.