February 1, 2023
The Vienna Classification Assistant now includes both edition 8 (in force from January 1, 2018 until December 31, 2022) and edition 9 (in force as from January 1, 2023) of the Vienna Classification to help users classify trademark images.
Users simply select the Vienna Classification edition 8 or 9, before dropping the image to be classified into the active window of the Vienna Classification Assistant. The user is then walked through the different selection steps.
Still based on artificial intelligence (AI), edition 9 provides results similar to edition 8 in terms of relevance and quality. There were over 100 modifications between the two editions, including work to align similar terms in Category 2, particularly with regards to professions. Other main additions included new entries for stick figures, smiley faces, brains, avocados, pretzels, hamburgers, electronic cigarettes, flying saucers, quadcopter drones, mobile telephones, smartphones, tablet computers, video game consoles and controllers, surgical masks, as well as entries in Category 26 for various geometrical figures with cutout areas.
The Vienna Classification Assistant is available free of charge on the WIPO IP Portal.