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: The Patent Librarian's Notebook

Class 89 Expanded: Cross-Reference Art Collection Subclasses

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Just in time for Remembrance Day (Veterans Day in the U.S.), the USPTO has added a series of cross-reference art collection subclasses (901-939) to Class 89, Ordnance. The changes are outlined in Classification Order #1889, which was published on October 6. Class 89 was created in 1901 and includes "all guns adapted to be mounted or supported otherwise than by hand, all explosion-operated guns including hand and shoulder firearms, bomb dropping devices," and all types of artillery mounts, carriages and vehicles. The new subclasses pertain to armor.

Curiously, Class 89 also includes a subclass for "methods of waging war." Some patents included in this eclectic subclass include a "friendly fire prevention system and methods" (US 6,986,302), a "method of protecting a space vehicle" from a laser weapon (US 5,323,682) and a 1943 patent (US 2,313,388) for a "vehicle impeding device," a sort of anti-tank device that looks like a caltrop, an iron three or four pointed spike that was strewn on a battlefield to stop cavalry.

According to the USPTO database, 20,585 patents and 1,066 published applications are classified in Class 89.

Full post as published by The Patent Librarian's Notebook on November 09, 2009 (boomark / email).