Nice Classification (NCL)

The Nice Classification (NCL), established by the Nice Agreement (1957), is an international classification of goods and services applied for the registration of marks.  The eleventh edition of the NCL came into force on January 1, 2017.

Tunisia signed Nice Agreement concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification) on June 15, 1957, Accession on February 24, 1967, Entry into force on May 29, 1967. The Agreement, concluded in 1957, was revised at Stockholm in 1967 and at Geneva in 1977, and was amended in 1979.

The Nice Agreement establishes a classification of goods and services for the purposes of registering trademarks and service marks (the Nice Classification). The trademark offices of Contracting States must indicate, in official documents and publications in connection with each registration, the numbers of the classes of the Classification to which the goods or services for which the mark is registered belong.

Nice Classification consists of a list of classes – 34 for goods and 11 for services – and an alphabetical list of the goods and services. The latter comprises some 11,000 items. Both lists are amended and supplemented periodically by a Committee of Experts in which all Contracting States are represented.

Although only 84 States are party to the Nice Agreement, the trademark offices of about 65 additional States, as well as the International Bureau of WIPO, the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), the Benelux Organisation for Intellectual Property (BOIP) and the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (Trade Marks and Designs) (OHIM) of the European Union (EU), also use the Classification.

The Nice Agreement created a Union, which has an Assembly. Every State that is a member of the Union and has adhered to the Stockholm Act or the Geneva Act of the Nice Agreement is a member of the Assembly. Among the most important tasks of the Assembly is the adoption of the biennial program and budget of the Union.

The Agreement is open to States party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property (1883). Instruments of ratification or accession must be deposited with the Director General of WIPO. For more information on Nice Classification please visit WIPO’s website.

Learn more on :

• Tunisian Trademarks Law
• Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property
  Madrid System for the international registration of trademarks
• Madrid Agreement for the Repression of False or Deceptive Indications of Source on Goods
• Nairobi Treaty on the Protection of the Olympic Symbol
• Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin

Our practice covers :

• Trademark search in Tunisia
• Filing trademark application in Tunisia
• Tunisian Trademark registration
• International Trademark registration
• Trademark Opposition in Tunisia
• Trademark cancellation
• Trademark assignment in Tunisia
• Trademark license in Tunisia
• Trademark registration changes
• Trademark renewal in Tunisia
• Trademark due diligence in Tunisia
• Trademark protection in Tunisia
• Trademark watching services in Tunisia
• Trademark Portfolio Management in Tunisia
• Customs seizure proceedings in Tunisia
• Trademark infringement