The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) has just
announced that applicants can voluntarily include Nice
Classification of goods and services in new applications. The
online filing system has also been modified to permit use of a
drop-down menu with both suggested goods/services descriptions and
Nice classes. At the same time, applicants can continue to use
their own preferred goods/services descriptions and are not
required to include any Nice Classification. Class fees are not yet
in effect, and use of Nice class headings only are not
acceptable.
In addition, CIPO has taken the step of assigning Nice classes
to all existing applications and registrations without prior notice
to the trademark owners. For now, such classification is informal,
and applications/registrations display the following notice:
The Classification data is provided for information and
searching purposes only. CIPO does not warrant the accuracy of the
classes assigned to the trademark.
