On 19 December 1954, in Paris, members of the Council of Europe signed the European Convention on the International Classification of Patents for Invention (ETS 17). One original, equally authentic English and French texts, deposited in the archives of the Council of Europe. The Secretary General sends certified copies to the signatory and acceding governments and to the Director of the International Bureau at Berne. Signatories included Paul-Henri Spaak, Pierre Mendès-France, Anthony Eden and J. W. Beyen. Publication: UK Treaty Series No. 42 (1956), Cmd. 9862.

The preamble invokes Article 15 of the Paris Convention of 1883 for the Protection of Industrial Property, as revised down to London 1934, and the Committee of Ministers resolution of 12 September 1952 on generalising examination of patent applications for novelty. Article 1: each Contracting Party shall adopt the system set out in the Annex, together with later elaborations and modifications; it may apply that International Classification as a principal or as a subsidiary system. The Annex is not reproduced here.

Article 2: the Committee of Experts on Patents of the Council of Europe is responsible for further elaboration; an elaboration or modification approved by that Committee enters into force six months after notification, unless at least two Parties have objected not less than one month before. Article 3: after six months from entry into force, printed patent specifications (or extracts issued as substitutes) shall be marked with the complete symbols, preceded by “International Classification” or an abbreviation, in heavy type. Article 3(2): a government which does not classify patents for the purpose of examining novelty may declare, on signature, ratification or accession, that it does not undertake to mark all or some of the symbols relating to elaborations; no such reservation may be made in connection with the Annex itself.

Article 4: open for signature by the Members of the Council of Europe; ratification with the Secretary General. Subject to Article 6, it enters into force on the first day of the month following deposit of the fourth instrument of ratification. Entry into force: 1 August 1955. Article 5: after entry into force, accession by any Member of the Paris Union which is not a Member of the Council, by diplomatic notification to the Swiss Government; effect one month later. Article 6: a declaration may postpone entry into force until ratification by the Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Article 8: remains in force indefinitely; denunciation on one year’s notice.

Mendès-France declared on signature that France intended to avail itself of the option in Article 3(2). Eden signed in respect of the United Kingdom only (including the Isle of Man), not other territories. The 1971 Strasbourg Agreement concerning the International Patent Classification is a later, separate instrument. The 1954 Convention later ceased after denunciations, in 1999.

This is not a list of the eight sections of the Annex and not a handbook of how to classify patent applications.

Quai d'Orsay, Paris, the city of signature, not the signing room. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

For context: European Convention on the International Classification of Patents for Invention. The text: European Convention on the International Classification of Patents for Invention (UKTS 42/1956).