The International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (aka the Nice Classification, because it was established by an international conference in Nice) dates from 1957, though it has been amended several times.
Use of the Nice Classification is mandatory for the national registration of trademarks in those countries that are party to the Nice Agreement. It is also mandatory for international registration of trademarks effected by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization, the African Intellectual Property Organization, the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization, the Benelux Organisation for Intellectual Property, and the EU’s Intellectual Property Office. The Nice Classification is also applied in other countries not party to the Agreement.
The latest edition incorporates several changes to classifications, none of them electrical appliances. But there are also various new items listed and these include interactive touch screen terminals, electric wine cellars, and heads for electric toothbrushes, as well as consultancies for advertising and communication strategies, and rentals of dishwashers and electric wine cellars, not to mention various forms of electronic monitoring.
The new class headings and the explanatory notes can be found on the WIPO website at http://web2.wipo.int/nef/nef-projects/nc017/nc017-a02_ibli.pdf
