The Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs is a multilateral global treaty. This agreement was signed on October 8, 1968. The Locarno Agreement entered into force on April 27, 1971. The Agreement has established a Committee of Experts to make amendments as well as Additions. The Locarno Classification has been established in the English as well as French languages. Official texts of the Locarno Classification are established after discussion with the interested Governments by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization. Translations of the Locarno Classification have been established in German, Italian, Portuguese as well as Spanish. The Locarno arrangement consists of three parts. There is a List of Classes as well as Subclasses. In total there are 31 classes along with 211 subclasses. An Alphabetical List of Goods in which industrial designs are incorporated. This List contains in total just about 6,000 entries as well as explanatory notes.
The industrial property offices of the countries of the Locarno Union have to contain in the official documents for the deposit or registration of designs. If they are formally published in the publications in question, the numbers of the classes as well as subclasses of the Locarno Classification in which the goods incorporating the designs belong. Each nation may attribute to such classification the legal consequences. The Locarno Classification does not bind the countries of the Locarno Union as regards the nature along with the variety of protection afforded to the design in those countries.
This Agreement provides that each of the countries of the Locarno Union preserves the right to employ the this Classification either as a most important or as a supplementary method. This means that the countries of the Locarno Union are free to accept the Locarno Classification as the only classification to be used for industrial designs or to preserve an existing national classification system for industrial designs as well as to use the Locarno Classification as a supplementary classification. The Locarno Agreement provides that the addition of any word in the Alphabetical List of Goods is not an expression of opinion of the Committee of Experts, on whether or not such a word is subject matter to special rights. The States party to the Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs are listed in the appropriate text to be found inserted in the back flap of this volume.
