International Classification for Industrial Designs (Locarno Class)
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INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION FOR INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION GENEVA 1972 WIPO PUBLICATION No. 501 (E) @ WIPO 1972 CONTENTS Page Preface 5 Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs . • . 9 Recommendation adopted by the Committee of Experts on September 17, 1971 18 Table of Classes 19 List of Classes and Subclasses, with Explanatory Notes 21 Alphabetical List of Goods (English-French): General List 37 List according to Classes and Subclasses 133 3 INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION FOR INDUSTRIAL DESIGNS PREFACE I. The International Classification for Industrial Designs was established by an Agreement concluded between the Governments of several countries members of the Paris Union for the Protection of Industrial Property at a Diplomatic Conference held in Locarno from October 2 to 8, 1968. The countries party to the Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs, of October 8, 1968, have constituted a Special Union and declared their adoption of a single classification for industrial designs. The International Classification comprises three parts : a list of classes and sub classes; an alphabetical list of goods in which industrial designs are incorporated, with an indication of the classes and subclasses into which they fall; explanatory notes. The list of classes consists of 31 classes, each containing a varying number of subclasses. The International Classification has an essentially practical value. Article 2 of the Locarno Agreement expressly provides that, subject to the requirements prescribed by that Agreement, the Classification shall be solely of an administrative character, having whatever legal scope each country attributes to it. In particular, the International Classification does not bind the contracting countries as regards either the nature or the scope of the protection afforded to the design in those countries. The Locarno Agreement provides that the Offices of the contracting countries must include in the official documents for the deposit or registration of designs, and, if they are officially published, in the publications in question, the numbers of the classes and subclasses of the International Classification to which the goods in corporating the designs belong. As to how these numbers should be indicated, the Committee of Experts set up by the Locarno Agreement (see Part III below) adopted · a recommendation whose text appears on page 18 of this volume. Each of the contracting countries has the right to use the International Classifica tion as a principal or as a subsidiary system. As from January 1, 1972, WIPO has been classifying according to the Inter national Classification goods in which industrial designs that are the subject of international deposit are incorporated, in order to facilitate the task of countries to which the effects of the international deposit extend. s II. The International Classification established by the Locarno Agreement was elaborated in response to the interest shown by a number of member countries of the Paris Union, an interest which was revealed by a survey made in April 1963 by the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (BIRPI), now the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization, hereinafter referred to as the International Bureau. The work of the Locarno Conference had been prepared by a Committee of Experts which was convened on two occasions by the International Bureau, in 1964 and in 1966. The Committee. had elaborated a draft international classification and recommended the conclusion of a special agreement within the framework of the Paris Union for the Protection of Industrial Property to serve as a basis for the International Classification. At the session which it held from September 26 to 29, 1966, the Executive Co1t1mittee of the Conference of Representatives of the Paris Union also considered that it would be desirable to convene a diplomatic conference for the adoption of a treaty on the classification of goods for the purposes of the registration of industrial designs. The example of the International Classifica tion of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks, which was created in 1935 and made official by an Agreement concluded at Nice in 1957, had demonstrated the need to establish, by means of an international treaty, a permanent international body entrusted with adapting the classification to progress in industry and technology. Indeed, the absence of such a body leads countries to amend and add to the classification themselves-and, failing agreement, sometimes in different ways-thereby prejudicing its international character. III. The Locarno Agreement set up at the International Bureau a Committee of Experts on which each of the contracting countries is represented. This Committee was entrusted with finalizing the list of classes and subclasses which had been an nexed to the Agreement, and with adopting the explanatory notes and the list of goods. It is also the body competent for keeping the International Classification up to date by adapting it to developments in industry and technology. In order to prepare the preliminary work of the Committee of Experts pending the entry into force of the Agreement, the Locarno Conference, by a Resolution dated October 7, 1968, set up at the International Bureau a provisional Committee of Experts composed of one representative from each country signatory to the Agreement, and gave it the task of re-examining the list of classes and subclasses annexed to the Agreement, and of establishing drafts of the alphabetical list of goods and of the explanatory notes. The provisional Committee of Experts held one session, which took place from November 30 to December 4, 1970. The Locarno Agreement entered into force on April 27, 1971, and the Committee of Experts met for the first time from September 6 to 18, 1971. It finalized and adopted the list of classes and subclasses, with explanatory notes on a great many classes and subclasses, as well as the alphabetical list of goods. The various subclasses have 6 been established according to the so-called " superiority principle, " which means that each class begins, as far as possible, with the most restrictive subclass and ends with the most general. In accordance with the provisions of the Locarno Agreement, proposals for amendments or additions to the International Classification may be made at any time by the Office of any of the contracting countries or by the International Bureau. Proposals are forwarded by the International Bureau to the Committee of Experts, which then meets to decide on them. Amendments and additions adopted by the Committee of Experts are communicated by the International Bureau to the Offices of the contracting countries and, where they affect the list of classes and subclasses and the explanatory notes, published in the periodical reviews, La Propriete indus trielle and Industrial Property, issued by the International Bureau; amendments and additions affecting the alphabetical list of goods are the subject of a note published in the same periodicals. Amendments and additions adopted by the Committee of Experts generally enter into force as soon as the communication is received by the Offices. However, if they entail the setting up of a new class or any transfer of goods from one class to another, they enter into force within a period of six months from the date of the said communication. IV. This volume comprises, in addition to the text of the Locarno Agreement of October 8, 1968, and of the Recommendation adopted by the Committee of Experts on September 17, 1971, the three component parts of the International Classification for Industrial Designs as adopted by the Committee of Experts on September 18, 1971, namely, the list of classes and subclasses, the alphabetical list of goods in which industrial designs are incorporated, with an indication, for each of the goods, of the class and subclass into which it falls, and the explanatory notes. The list of classes and subclasses is preceded by a table of classes (without sub classes). The alphabetical list consists of two parts: a first part comprising, in alphabet ical order, all the goods whatever the class and subclass to which they belong, and a second part in which the goods are arranged alphabetically according to classes and subclasses. To facilitate consultation of these lists, the same goods may appear several times under different key-words. In choosing the key-words, words in very frequent use, such as "machines," "apparatus," "instruments,"" utensils," and "devices," which would have entailed grouping too many goods under one single heading, were disregarded. Thus, " sewing machines " or " calculating machines " should be looked for only under " sewing machines" and "calculating machines" and not under "machines (sewing-)" or "machines (calculating-)". Finally, each of the goods indicated has its French equivalent opposite, and may even have several synonyms in the French language. With a view also to simplifying consultation of the explanatory notes, the latter have not been published separately but appear after the text of the class or subclass to which they refer. 7 V. In accordance with the Locarno Agreement, the International Classification is established in the Eng]ish and French languages, both texts being equally authentic. In addition, official texts may be established