The OAPI IP Office recently published a notice informing trade mark owners, agents and all other users of the OAPI regional system that the Trade Marks Registry applies the current version of the Nice Classification system as adopted by WIPO, namely the 11th edition (2019 version).

While the 2018 version of the 11th edition may still be used up to 31 March 2019, the Registry reserves the right to re-classify the specified goods or services for trade mark applications filed with the 2018 version, wherever that may be necessary. No official fee would be payable when such re-classifications occur. It is uncertain whether any re-classifications will occur in practice, as the latest edition of the Nice Classification system added more than 200 new descriptions of goods/services, and it appears that the added descriptions are meant to elaborate on existing descriptions of goods and services falling within each existing class concerned.

The OAPI IP Office also seeks to advise that the goods and services class headings, as stated in the 2019 version of the 11th edition of the Nice Classification, will be available in all the editions of the Official Bulletin of Intellectual Property for 2019 (found on www.oapi.int).