TM5 Classification Experts Meeting in Beijing
After their first meeting in October 2013, held at the USPTO Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. A., the classification experts representing each TM5 Partner have made significant progress on their joint projects aimed at improving the classification of goods and services for the benefit of mutual stakeholders. To share their progress and decide on next actions, experts met again this past summer at SAIC Headquarters in Beijing, China.
The meeting took place over the course of two days and allowed for in-depth discussions on the shared goods and services database, known as the ID List and the possible improvement of its classification structure. ID List is a harmonized identification list of goods and services accepted by the JPO, KIPO, EUIPO and the USPTO. SAIC has recently joined the common database which means users can soon expect the goods and services found in the ID List to also be accepted in China. Their participation is most certainly welcome by the partners and users worldwide.
Access to the ID List will take on a new dimension this December – its own user-friendly, widely accessible, search platform will be made available. This new search tool will allow users to conveniently identify which terms are accepted by all the five partners and find translations for those terms in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean. Users will be able to access the platform directly from the TM5 website and from the respective websites of the partners.
Discussions continued on whether the ID List should be organized following a taxonomy structure. This would entail grouping goods and services terms into broad categories that then house sub-groups with more precise terms related to the corresponding broader category. EUIPO utilizes taxonomy, together with a majority of EU trade mark offices, to organize the European Harmonised Database. The TM5 classification experts will continue exploring taxonomy and the benefits it could bring to the ID List, such as the reduction in time expended for searches by users and the ability to maintain the database more easily.
At the end of the two-day meeting, the TM5 Partners agreed on further steps to facilitate the use of the common trade mark classification tools. The next meeting between TM5 classification experts will take place in July 2015; the location has yet to be determined.
