07 | 06 | 2013

Harmonization of Classification of Goods and Services

The process of technical harmonization that will, after the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union, allow, among other things, the full inclusion of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) in the programs of cooperation between national trademark offices of the Member States launched by the Office for Harmonization on the Internal Market (OHIM) as the trademark office of the European Union is underway.

The aim of the so-called Convergence Programme, which includes various projects, is to reach common ground on a series of issues in which national IP offices in the EU have different practices.

One of such projects is the harmonization of classification of goods and services for the purposes of the registration of marks. The aim is to develop a common multilingual database of classification terms and establish a common harmonized classification practices. A precondition for the participation in the project is the translation of the whole database into the language of a certain country and the validation thereof.

Now, SIPO has been integrated in the Common Harmonized Database by which its practice as the national trademark office of the Republic of Croatia has been harmonized with the practice of the OHIM and other offices participating in the project as regards the classification of goods and services for the purposes of the registration of marks. Furthermore, the Croatian version of the Common Harmonized Database on Classification of Goods and Services is now accessible to the users through the Euroclass application, available at the OHIM website