The Trade Marks (Amendment) Rules 2006

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Rules)

These Rules amend the Trade Marks Rules 2000 (SI 2000/136, as amended) (“the 2000 Rules”).

These Rules formally prescribe the Nice Classification as the prescribed system of classification under the Trade Marks Act 1994 (c. 26). The Nice Classification is the system of classification arising under the Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks of 15th June 1957, which was last amended on 28th September 1979. The Ninth Edition of the Nice Classification enters into force on the 1st January 2007. The Ninth Edition of the Nice Classification will be available on the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s website (www.wipo.int).

Rule 3 substitutes a new rule 7 for that in the 2000 Rules. This provision prescribes the system of classification to be used for the purposes of registering trade marks.

Rules 4 and 5 set out minor and consequential amendments to rules 8, 23 and 46 of the 2000 Rules.

Rule 6 amends rule 46 of the 2000 Rules. This provision enables the registrar to re-classify a registered trade mark where the Nice Classification has changed for some or all of the goods and services in respect of which the mark has been registered.

Rule 7 and the Schedule revoke, amongst other things, two Schedules to the 2000 Rules. Those Schedules set out two previous systems of classification, both of which were based on earlier versions of the Nice Classification system.