Locarno Agreement

The Locarno Agreement Establishing an International Classification for Industrial Designs, signed on 8 October 1968 and administered by WIPO, establishes the common nomenclature in which offices classify designs according to the products to which they apply. The Locarno Classification comprises thirty-two classes divided into subclasses, together with an alphabetical list of products. It is used by the INPI, by the EUIPO and by the Hague System for international registration.

Content of the Classification

Classes are defined by the nature of the products, for example foodstuffs, clothing, travel goods, furnishing, vehicles, packaging, instruments or graphical user interfaces, not by the style or technique of the creation. Each design is assigned to a class and subclass according to the indication of product supplied by the applicant, and the office may correct that classification. The Classification is revised periodically by a committee of experts, a new edition in principle entering into force every two years, the fifteenth edition having applied since 1 January 2025. Filings are classified according to the edition in force on their filing date.

Legal significance of classification

The Agreement itself states that the Classification is purely administrative in character and does not bind States as to the nature and scope of protection. The indication of product and its class serve for prior art searches and the organisation of the registers, but do not confine the right: a design registered for one product may be relied on against its reproduction on a product of a different kind, infringement being assessed by comparing appearances, not uses. Novelty and individual character are likewise assessed against all disclosed designs, whatever the sector, subject to what professionals in the sector concerned could have known of them. The indication of product may nonetheless shed light on the identification of the informed user and the designer’s degree of freedom.

Implications for multiple filings

Classification long determined whether several creations could be grouped in a single application. Before the EUIPO, a multiple application required all the designs to belong to the same Locarno class, except for ornamentation, a constraint removed by the 2024 reform, which in turn caps the number of designs per application. A French filing allows creations from different classes to be grouped in a multiple filing.

Key points

The Locarno Agreement provides the nomenclature of thirty-two product classes that organises design registers without ever limiting the scope of protection, which is measured by the protected appearance, not by the product indicated. The product should be indicated precisely, prior art searches should extend beyond the class of filing and, for multiple applications at the EUIPO, advantage should be taken of the removal of the unity of class requirement.

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This glossary entry is general in scope and does not constitute legal advice.

Dhenne Avocats is a patent litigation firm. Matters outside that field, such as trade marks, designs, copyright and IT contracts, are handled by practitioners the firm works with regularly, and by the firm itself when they arise in a patent dispute.

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