As part of the OHIM Convergence Programme, the Patents Office, in conjunction with OHIM, European National Trade Mark Offices, and the Benelux Trade Marks Office, under the auspices of the Class Headings Harmonisation Project, have agreed to a common position in relation to the acceptability of the General Indications of the Nice Class Headings.
As a result of this work, all have agreed to publish simultaneously a Common Communication on the Common Practice on the general indications of the Nice Class Headings Common Communication - General Indications of(0.41 MB, Adobe PDF)
Implementation will take place within 3 months of the date of publication of this Common communication (although some offices may have to delay implementation due to legal constraints).
List of implementing offices:
Austria, Bulgaria, Benelux, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland*, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, OHIM, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, & United Kingdom.
The Common Communication on the Implementation of (0.50 MB, Adobe PDF) , which gave an overview on how Trade Mark Offices of the European Union deal with specific topics relating to the implementation of the said Judgment, originally published on 2nd May 2013, has since been updated to incorporate some corrections and changes in practice.
Tools such as TMclass
are available to assist in searching for, and identifying acceptable terms.
*Implemented from 16/01/2013. Common Communication - General Indications of (0.41 MB, Adobe PDF)