Changes to the Trade Mark Classification System
The 10th edition of the International Classification of Goods and Services (NICE Classification system) recently came into force and the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) have now issued a Notice regarding this change.
The new classification contains many minor amendments to the classification used when registering a UK trade mark at the UK IPO. The list of goods and services has been updated to reflect changes in technology and products, eg. the introduction of wind turbines, downloadable music files, bread making machines, drilling of deep oil or gas-wells and USB flash drives.
In practice, these amendments may not affect many applicants and proprietors. Any trade mark application filed before 1 January 2012 does not have to be reclassified and the coverage of such trade marks will be unchanged. Any new trade mark application will be examined using the new classification system and the UK IPO have issued a Summary of the changes.
The changes to the classification system should be a consideration for any existing trade mark watches and future trade mark clearance searches.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss you current trade mark watches or if you have any queries regarding this update.
