The Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification was done at Strasbourg on 24 March 1971. A single original in English and French, both texts equally authentic. It remained open for signature at Strasbourg until 30 September 1971; the original was then deposited with the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization. Depositary: the Director General of WIPO. Registered with the United Nations on 28 February 1980 as UNTS 18337. Entry into force: 7 October 1975, one year after deposit by two-thirds of the States party to the 1954 European Convention plus three Paris Convention States, at least one of them with more than 40,000 patent applications a year (Article 13). Institutional amendments of 28 September 1979 do not change the 1971 formula.

Article 1: the countries constitute a Special Union and adopt a common classification for patents for invention, inventors’ certificates, utility models and utility certificates — the International Patent Classification. It takes over the Council of Europe European Convention text of 19 December 1954, published on 1 September 1968, plus later amendments. Article 4: administrative character only; each country may use it as a principal or subsidiary system; authorities include the complete symbols on titles and applications. Class tables are not reproduced here.

Article 5: a Committee of Experts, one vote per country; it amends the Classification, recommends uniform use, and assists reclassification, with developing-country needs in view. Article 6: Classification amendments enter into force six months after notification. Articles 7–9: the Assembly of the Special Union, the International Bureau, and a budget of contributions on the Paris Union class scale. Article 12: only States party to the Paris Convention, by signature plus ratification or by accession.

Article 13(c): countries party to the European Convention that ratify or accede must denounce that Convention at the latest from the day this Agreement enters into force for them. Article 14: the same duration as the Paris Convention. Article 15: denunciation after five years of membership, taking effect one year later. Article 17: transitional rights for European Convention States not yet in the Special Union. This is not a patent-examination handbook.

The Holy See, Iran and Liechtenstein signed in 1971 without later ratification. WIPO administers the Union; the Council of Europe remains notified, not the depositary.

Cover: WIPO headquarters in Geneva, the depositary organisation; not the conference hall in Strasbourg. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification; Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification (WIPO publication 275).