USPTO Reorganizes Classes 210 and 707

The USPTO has published two more classification orders affecting Class 210, Liquid Purification and Separation, and Class 707, Data Processing: Database and File Management or Data Structures. (#1890 and #1893)

Approximately 83,767 patents and 14,473 published applications are classified in Class 210. The earliest patent is no. X5,013, which was registered on Feb. 22, 1828 to a Christopher Hall of Norfolk, Virginia for a method of purifying and filtering water. Of the 84,000 patents in Class 210, 56.5 percent were issued after 1975.

Approximately 35,547 patents and 53,792 published applications are classified in Class 707. The overwhelming majority of patents in this class, 99.2 percent, were issued after 1975. The earliest patent in Class 707 was issued in 1959 to French inventors Claude Rene Jean Dumousseau and Andre Edouard Joseph Chatelon and assigned to the International Standard Electric Co. of New York, a subsidiary of international telecom giant International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT). The French engineers' patent, US 2,881,415, describes a system for recording and selecting information, e.g. a telephone call answering system.