The Strasbourg Agreement on International Patent Classification stipulates that

The agreement aims at generally adopting a unified classification system for patents, inventors' certificates, utility models and utility model certificates, establishing closer international cooperation in the field of industrial property rights and coordinating the legislative work of various countries in this field. The agreement establishes an international patent classification system, which divides technologies into 8 departments and 69,000 subcategories. Each subclass of 1 has an identifier of 1, which is marked by the industrial property offices of various countries or regions.

The Strasbourg Agreement is based on the international classification of invention patents created by the European Convention on International Classification of Invention Patents 1954. The universal value of this classification is not only important for all parties to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, but also for developing countries. The agreement is managed by the World Intellectual Property Organization and is open to all members of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. The agreement stipulates that all patent documents should be marked with appropriate international patent symbols. Any country, whether it is a party to the agreement or not, can use this classification. The international patent classification system is revised every five years. Only the Paris Union member countries attending the Strasbourg Conference have the right to participate in the revision of the international patent classification system.

As of12,2004,31,the total number of parties is 55 countries. 65438+1June 1996 17, the government of China submitted its instrument of accession to the World Intellectual Property Organization, and on June 1997 19, China became a member of the agreement.