In Japanese patent law, F-term is a system for classifying Japanese patent documents according to the technical features of the inventions described in them. It is not a replacement for the International Patent Classification (IPC) or other patent classifications, but complements other systems by providing a means for searching documents from different viewpoints.[citation needed] A symbol attached to a patent document, indicating that the invention disclosed in the document has a particular technical feature, is also called an F-term.[citation needed]

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