January 1, 2015 saw the entry into force of the 2015 Version of the Nice Classification, Tenth Edition. Officially called the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks, the Nice Classification is the product of a multilateral agreement in 1957 to establish, as its title suggests, an international, standardized system of classifying goods and services for trademark registration purposes. There are currently eighty-four countries, including the United States, that are bound by the Nice Agreement, as well as a number of other countries that are not contracting parties but have adopted the Nice Classification. The Nice Classification is published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) here, and is accessible for public searching here. In addition, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has posted an overview of the 2015 Version of the Nice Classification here, as well as a summary of “noteworthy changes” in the 2015 Version here.

I, Yann [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Reposted from the USPTO and WIPO.