OAPI enhances its participation in TMclass and joins DesignClass

As of 14 September 2020, the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI) has enhanced its participation in TMclass and joined DesignClass. From this day, OAPI will use and accept the list of terms from the harmonised database of goods and services (HDB) in TMclass as well as the list of terms from the harmonised database of product indications (HDBPI) in DesignClass.

Following OAPI’s decision to use HDB and HDBPI there are now twelve (12) non-EU IP offices in TMclass and eleven (11) in DesignClass, which use and accept terms from these harmonised databases.

The last addition of OAPI in TMclass brings the total number of participating national and regional IP Offices, including ARIPO, OAPI, WIPO and EUIPO, to 81. As for DesignClass, there are now 38 IP offices in this tool after OAPI has joined.

TMclass offers users the opportunity to search and translate goods and services to and from any of the 44 languages available. In DesignClass you can search and translate product indications in 28 languages.

The adoption of HDB and HDBPI by OAPI are concrete results of the EU funded project called Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) Action for Africa (AfrIPI), which is directed by the European Commission and executed by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

You can find out more at www.tmdn.org and http://euipo.europa.eu/ec2 and http://euipo.europa.eu/designclass