The Patents Office is working with other National Offices, OHIM and user organisations to reach agreement on which Nice Classification class heading general indications are acceptable and which are not in trademark applications.
As a result of this work the Patents Office recently published a list of unacceptable general indications when applying to register a trademark. The list will be updated, as required. The table below lists those Nice Class Heading General Indications that are unacceptable to the Irish Patents Office when you are filing trademark applications.
The list was compiled by the OHIM and European National Offices (including the Irish Patents Office) as part of the Class Headings Harmonisation Project under the OHIM Convergence Programme for trademarks. All participating offices agree on the contents of this list and it will affect applications to register trademarks throughout the EU.
It should be noted that it is the entire of the terms listed in the table that are unacceptable. Therefore, this does not mean that individual goods or services within those terms are also unacceptable (for example, the term ‘machine tools’ is acceptable in Class 7, whereas the term ‘machines and machine tools’ is not).
The harmonisation project is on-going, so please be aware that the list may be expanded over time and take care when filing your applications to register trademarks.
| Class Number | General Indication |
|---|---|
| 06 | Goods of common metal not included in other classes |
| 07 | Machines and machine tools |
| 14 | Precious metals and their alloys and goods in precious metals or coated therewith, not included in other classes |
| 16 | Paper, cardboard and goods made from these materials, not included in other classes |
| 17 | Rubber, gutta-percha, gum, asbestos, mica and goods made from these materials and not included in other classes |
| 18 | Leather and imitations of leather, and goods made of these materials and not included in other classes |
| 20 | Goods (not included in other classes) of wood, cork, reed, cane, wicker, horn, bone, ivory, whalebone, shell, amber, mother-of-pearl, meerschaum and substitutes for all these materials, or of plastics |
| 37 | Repair |
| 37 | Installation services |
| 40 | Treatment of materials |
| 45 | Personal and social services rendered by others to meet the needs of individuals |
