PREFACE

HISTORY AND PURPOSE OF THE NICE CLASSIFICATION

The International (Nice) Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks was established by an Agreement concluded at the Nice Diplomatic Conference, on June 15, 1957, was revised at Stockholm, in 1967, and at Geneva, in 1977, and was amended in 1979.

The countries party to the Nice Agreement constitute a Special Union within the framework of the Paris Union for the Protection of Industrial Property.  They have adopted and apply the Nice Classification for the purposes of the registration of marks.

Each of the countries party to the Nice Agreement is obliged to apply the Nice Classification in connection with the registration of marks, either as the principal classification or as a subsidiary classification, and has to include in the official documents and publications relating to its registrations of marks the numbers of the classes of the Classification to which the goods or services for which the marks are registered belong.

Use of the Nice Classification is mandatory not only for the national registration of marks in countries party to the Nice Agreement, but also for the international registration of marks effected by the International Bureau of WIPO, under the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks and under the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks, and for the registration of marks by the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), by the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), by the Benelux Organisation for Intellectual Property (BOIP) and by the European Union Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM).

The Nice Classification is also applied in a number of countries not party to the Nice Agreement (see list on page (viii)).

REVISIONS OF THE NICE CLASSIFICATION

The Nice Classification is based on the Classification prepared by the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (BIRPI) – predecessor of WIPO – in 1935.  It was that Classification, consisting of a list of 34 classes and an alphabetical list of goods, that was adopted under the Nice Agreement and later expanded to embrace also eleven classes covering services and an alphabetical list of those services.

The Nice Agreement provides for the setting up of a Committee of Experts in which all countries party to the Agreement are represented.  The Committee of Experts decides on all changes in the Classification, in particular the transfer of goods and services between various classes, the updating of the alphabetical list and the introduction of necessary explanatory notes.

The Committee of Experts has, since the entry into force of the Nice Agreement, on April 8, 1961, held 21 sessions and has, amongst its most noticeable achievements, undertaken a general review of the Alphabetical List of goods and services from the point of view of form (in the late 1970s);  substantially modified the General Remarks, the Class Headings and the Explanatory Notes (in 1982);  introduced a “basic number” for each single product or service in the Alphabetical List (in 1990), which number enables the user to find the equivalent product or service in the alphabetical lists of other language versions of the Classification;  and revised Class 42 with the creation of Classes 43 to 45 (in 2000).

At its twenty-first session, held in November 2010, the Committee of Experts adopted changes to the ninth edition of the Nice Classification. 

EDITIONS OF THE NICE CLASSIFICATION

The first edition of the Nice Classification was published in 1963, the second in 1971, the third in 1981, the fourth in 1983, the fifth in 1987, the sixth in 1992, the seventh in 1996, the eighth in 2001 and the ninth in 2006.  This edition (the tenth), published in June 2011, will enter into force on January 1, 2012.

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The authentic versions of the Nice Classification (English and French) are published by WIPO on paper and online.  The paper version is published in two parts.  Part I (this volume) lists, in alphabetical order, all the goods in one list and all the services in another list.  Part II lists, in alphabetical order for each class, the goods or services belonging to that class.  There is also a version with a bilingual (English/French) alphabetical list.

The tenth edition of the Nice Classification may be ordered from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 34, chemin des Colombettes, P.O. Box 18, CH‑1211 Geneva 20 or from the Electronic Bookshop on the website of WIPO at the following address:  https://www.wipo.int/ebookshop.

Geneva, June 2011

 

COUNTRIES PARTY TO THE NICE AGREEMENT

(January 2011)

Albania Algeria Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain Barbados Belarus Belgium Benin Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria China Croatia Cuba Czech Republic Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Denmark Dominica Egypt Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Guinea Hungary Iceland Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lebanon Liechtenstein

Lithuania Luxembourg Malawi Malaysia Mexico Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Republic of Korea Republic of Moldova Romania Russian Federation Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Serbia Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Spain Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Tajikistan The former Yugoslav Republic of   Macedonia Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Ukraine United Kingdom United Republic of Tanzania United States of America Uruguay Uzbekistan