Starting from 1 January 2012, most countries which are party to the Nice Agreement will be adopting the new INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF GOODS AND SERVICES UNDER THE NICE AGREEMENT TENTH EDITION. The new classification has seen numerous changes being made to the lists of goods and services. New items have been added to the Classification as well as reclassification of multiple items in a bid to make the Nice Classification more user-friendly.

While the Nice Classification underwent substantial overhauling, in actual fact the most substantial changes have been made to the classification of dietary and nutritional supplements and food additives (primarily in classes 5, 29, 30, 31), video gaming apparatus (in classes 9 and 28), electrically powered goods (primarily in classes 7, 8, 9 and 21) and babies nappies/diapers (in classes 5, 16 and 25). Kindly refer to the following link for a comprehensive list detailing all the changes that have been made.

Another noteworthy change is pertaining to the frequency at which the Nice Classification will be updated. Starting from 1 January 2013 the Classification will be updated annually, with minor changes like addition of items and other minor tweaks.

Due to the major changes made to the classification, trade mark owners are likely to be affected. Certain countries will allow the owners to convert their trademark from the previous edition to the 10th edition, while in other countries, trademark owners may have to re-register their trademark in an additional class. For further details kindly contact our trade mark team for further clarification. Please direct your queries to Ms Sumathy at [email protected] or Mr Teh at [email protected], alternatively you can call us at +603-2185050.