On 15 August 2018, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published its Information Notice No. 12/2018. In this Notice, WIPO released a new version of the 11th edition of the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification) that will enter into force on 1 January 2019.
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The new version “NCL (11-2019)” is going to be applied by the International Bureau of WIPO to any international registration that fulfills following requirements:
- “The application for an international registration is received by the Office of Origin on or after 1 January 2019”, or
- “The application for international registration is received by the International Bureau of WIPO on or after 1 January 2019, when the said application is received by the International Bureau of WIPO after the two-month time limit referred to in Article 3 (4) of the Protocol Relating to the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks".
According to this announcement, the Madrid Goods and Services Manager (MGS) is also going to be updated in order to reflect all the changes in the NCL (11-2019).
For a better insight on this topic, read the new 11th version of the Nice Classification or the whole Information Notice No. 12/2018 which are available on the WIPO website here.