Recently the Nice International Classification of Products and Services, a system used to categorize trademark applications, has been updated once again, with the entry into force of the 11th Edition on January 1, 2017.
The international system of classification of goods and services was created through the Nice Agreement on June 15, 1957, to unify the classification systems of products and services for the registration of marks. Thus, the signatory countries of the Nice Agreement are obliged to adopt such a system either as its principal or as secondary system.
As a signatory country to the agreement, Brazil has adopted the Nice International Classification for goods and services as of January 03, 2000. Since then, all trademark applications filed in Brazil have indicated the classes as established in said agreement.
Periodically, the Nice International Classification is reviewed and updated for the purpose of promoting necessary adaptations, sometimes simply through the restructuring of a particular class or even the creation of new classes. Since 2013, a new version of each edition is published annually.
Following this premise, the 11th Edition of the International Classification of Nice was published in January 2017 with the modifications made by the Experts Committee, among which we can highlight the following:
- Change of the general description of the heading of classes 3, 6, 10, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28, 31 and 45;
- Revision of the Explanatory Notes to Classes 5, 11, 29, 30, 35, 42 and 44; and
- Inclusion of more than 300 new items, such as "adapted therapeutic and care devices for people with disabilities (class 10)," dog walking (services) "and" Internet domain name leasing "( Both in class 45);
Although the new Edition came into effect on January 01st, 2017, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office issued a notice stating that it is still in the process of adapting its internal systems to receive and process new trademark applications according to the 11th Edition. In this way, it is necessary to wait for a new official pronouncement from the BPTO with the availability of both, the system already properly adapted and the information pertinent to the changes made with the new edition.
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