Special Union For The International Classification Of Goods And Services For The Purposes Of The Registration Of Marks

26th Session Of The Preparatory Working Group

Geneva, Switzerland

Singapore participated in the above meeting held at the World Intellectual Property Organization headquarters at Geneva in November 2007.  The meeting was attended by 27 member states, 11 observer states and 2 IGOs and 1 NGO (INTA).  Mr. Michael Foley (UKIPO) was elected as Chairman while Mr. Louis Chan Ken Yu (IPOS) was elected as Vice-Chairman.

At the meeting, various amendments to the Nice Classification and recommendations to the Committee of Experts on the changes for incorporation in the Nice Classification in the next revision were considered. However, the working group was unable to complete the deliberations due to the sheer volume of proposals received. As such, the deliberations will continue in the next meeting in October 2008.

The Norwegian delegation proposed to merge all the identifications relating to food and drinks into two respective classes.  Some delegations supported the idea while several others expressed their reservations about the proposed merger, fearing that an overly large class might make the task of conducting prior searches administratively difficult.  Eventually the proposal was rejected by a majority vote as required by the rules of procedure.

The Committee also discussed the review of the procedure for the submission of proposal for amendments and the future of the Nice Classification.  These will be dealt with in greater depth at the next meeting.

The working papers on the individual items and draft report of the above meeting can be found at http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=11543