Table Of Contents
Selecting a different edition-version
Choosing an interface language
Introduction
Welcome to the internet publication of the NICE classification. This publication provides online access to editions of the classification. Several views of the data are provided including hierarchical and alphabetical lists and a search feature.
Five horizontal tabs describe the terms and remarks for a given edition of the classification:
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Taxonomy tab describes each class and lists the goods or services in a flat or tree structure comprised of hierarchy groups
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Alphabetical tab lists goods or services in alphabetical order
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General Remarks tab statically displays the general remarks of the NICE classification
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Modifications tab summarizes changes to the classification since the previous edition-version
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Search tab helps find a specific term or basic number in the classification
Selecting a different edition-version
The edition-version drop-down selector on the left side of the screen allows you to change the edition version currently displayed in all tabs of the internet publication. For older edition-versions that cannot be displayed in NICEPUBPREP, links to previous files are displayed.
The edition version can also be linked directly in the address bar as http://www.wipo.int/nicepub/edition-YYMMDD/ where YYMMDD is the date the given edition version goes into force.
Languages
There are two distinct language components in the NICE publication, the interface language and the data language. The interface language is used to control the display of menus, options, tab names, and headings in the classification. The data language is used to control the display of the content of the classification, and allows for a side-by-side bilingual display, regardless of the interface language.
Choosing an interface language
The interface language can be changed in the upper right-hand corner of the classification above the search box. Clicking ‘Francais’ will switch to French display if the interface is currently in English. Clicking ‘English’ will switch to English display if the interface is currently rendered in French.
Choosing a data language
The data language is selected on the interaction bar on the left side of the screen. Four configurations are available, English, French, Bilingual with English on left, and Bilingual with French on left.
Taxonomy
The taxonomy tab allows selecting a class of goods or services and viewing the terms in that class. Three possible renderings of the list of goods or services in a given class are possible by.
The tab initially shows a class selector interface divided into the 34 classes of goods and 11 classes of services. Click any one of the class numbers to view the taxonomy for the page.
Regardless of view mode, the class heading is displayed at the top of the page. The “Explanatory Notes” checkbox on the left interaction bar can be ticked to display the explanatory notes for the class under the class heading.. The “Basic Numbers” checkbox toggles whether or not basic numbers for each term are displayed to the left of that term.
To return to the taxonomy index and to pick a different tab, click either the “Taxonomy” tab title or the “Select Different Class” link on the left interaction bar.
View Modes
The three view modes render the same list of goods and services in different ways. The Full and Hierarchical modes show the taxonomy structure of goods and services within their respective hierarchy groups. Flat mode displays all the goods or services in the class in a single list. The terms are sorted in alphabetical order of the sort expression, which is highlighted in bold for each indication. Synonym indications, if there are any, are displayed beside the master indication. Synonym indications are separated from the master and other synonym indications by a ‘/’ character.
In full mode, the entire tree of hierarchy groups with their associated goods or services is displayed. All groups are visible in an indented tree structure.
Hierarchical mode displays the groups in the taxonomy tree in a collapsed state. Click on a hierarchy group title to expand it and view the indications of individual goods or services under it. Subgroups can be similarly expanded. Clicking the hierarchy group title a second time will collapse it once more. When expanded, the title will show a plus icon (
). When collapsed, a minus icon (
) is displayed.
Pagination
Users on a slow internet connection can tick the “Pagination” checkbox on the left interaction bar to split the list into more manageable pieces.
When pagination is enabled, a list of page numbers is displayed above the list of goods or services on the right side with previous and next links to navigate between pages.
In flat mode, pagination splits the list into pages of about 100 goods or services each. The two hierarchical modes are split in a more complicated fashion. The system will automatically ensure that the goods and services for a given hierarchy group are all on the same page, but two subgroups of a given hierarchy group may fall on different pages. When this occurs, the missing parent groups on a subsequent page are included at the top of the list to help identify where the given hierarchy group fits into the overall class taxonomy. These breadcrumb groups are displayed in a darker color to indicate that the previous page contained additional content for those groups.
Information Files
Any class heading, hierarchy group, or individual good or service may have an information file associated with it. If such a file exists, an information icon (
) is displayed beside the class heading, hierarchy group title, or specific indication.
Click this icon to open the information file in a new window or tab, depending on how your browser is configured. Links to other classes inside the information file will open in the original window. In order for the original window to be brought to the foreground when a link is clicked in the information files window, Firefox users must ensure the Tools --> Options --> Content --> Advanced (the button next to "Enable JavasScript") --> Raise or lower windows option has been enabled.
Alphabetical
Visit the Alphabetical tab to see a list of goods or services in alphabetical order. Select a letter of the alphabet from either the goods or services table to view the list.
If a given good or service has synonym indications, it will appear in the alphabetical list one time for each synonym. Additionally, if any one indication has multiple sort expressions, it appears in the list at multiple locations, once for each sort expression.
Each indication is listed with its class in the leftmost column. Click the class number to view that class in the taxonomy tab.
On slow internet connections, pagination works as for the taxonomy tab, with a page navigation sequence above the list of indications. Click a specific number to jump to that page, or use the “next” and “previous” links to navigate in sequence.
Click the “Alphabetical” tab title or the “Alphabetical Index” link on the left interaction bar to return to the index containing letters of the alphabet for goods and services.
General Remarks
The general remarks tab is a static page displaying the entire contents of the General Remarks in French, English, or two bilingual configurations. Specific classes mentioned in the General Remarks tab are linked to the named class on the Taxonomy tab. Clicking this link loads the class in the taxonomy tab maintaining the view mode last used to view information on that tab.
Modifications
The modifications tab serves two purposes. First, it summarizes textual changes to the general remarks, class headings, explanatory notes, and good or service indications. Second, it lists modifications to the list of goods or services for each class, including new goods or services added to the system, deleted goods or services, and transfers from one class to another.
From the index page, choose to view either Modifications to the General Remarks, or a specific class number. Clicking the Modifications tab title or the “Select Different Class” link on the left interaction bar will return you to this index page.
In the text of General Remarks, Class, and Good or Service modifications, new text is highlighted in a green bold font style, while text that has been deleted since the previous edition version is formatted with a red strike through the text.
Each class lists a table of modifications to the taxonomy structure. Only additions, deletions, or transfers between classes are listed. Transfers within the taxonomy (i.e. between groups) are not indicated.
Each modified good or service is displayed in a separate row. Modifications to the same indication in different languages are shown one above the other. Goods or services that have been added to the selected class (either new goods or services, or transfers from a different class) are highlighted with a green background. Goods or services that have been removed (either completely removed from the classification, or transferred to a different class) have a red background. Items that have only had textual changes since the previous edition-version are highlighted in blue. In the case of transfers, the class and basic number that the good or service has been transferred from or to is also listed.
Pagination can be enabled for a given class; the page navigator is displayed above the list of modifications.
Search
The search tab is the most interactive tab in the NICE Classification Internet publication. It has two distinct modes of operation, basic number lookup and term search. Clicking the “New Search” link on the left interaction bar or the Search tab title returns you to the search form. Search parameters are remembered between searches in case you need to alter an existing search. This is specifically useful for identifying different classes to search.
Basic Number Search
To look up a good or service basic number, type a six digit number into the “Basic No. or Search Terms” box. As soon as a six digit number is recognized, other inputs on the search form are disabled and the search button label is changed to reflect a basic number lookup. Click the button or press enter on the search field to perform the search.
Provided the Basic Number is a valid good or service in the Classification, the results page contains information about the class and, optionally, the taxonomy of hierarchy groups containing the requested good or service. Only those groups that are direct ancestors of the requested term are displayed, and their representation depends on the same view mode selectors described for the Taxonomy tab. The information file icons are displayed with the search results, in the same way as displays on the Taxonomy tab.
Term Search
If anything other than a six digit number is entered into the search box, a term search is performed. Optionally choose to limit the search to specific classes and have the option to enable or disable searching of information files.
The search engine is indexed separately for English and French languages. When a bilingual data language is selected, the search only occurs in the first language. The search index automatically takes care of word stemming and other patterns based on the grammars of the primary data language.
The Search form can be submitted either by clicking the “Search” button or pressing the enter key on any of the input fields.
At the top of the search results page, a table listing all matching classes in order of the number of matches in each class is displayed. Click a class number link to jump to the class in the search results.
The results page for a term search can be manipulated in the same way as the taxonomy tab, with separate view modes for full, hierarchical and flat display, and checkboxes to show or hide explanatory notes or basic numbers are displayed. However, only those goods and services that have indications matching the search terms are displayed. Hierarchy groups are displayed only if their titles match the search term, or if they contain other hierarchy groups, goods, or services that match the search term. Thus, the entire tree structure above each matching term is displayed.
Words matching your search terms are highlighted with a green background.
Class Selection
To limit your search to specific classes, tick the check boxes beside any classes you want to search before submitting the search. The four selectors above the list of classes allow for manipulating the class selection in bulk. Choose to select only goods, only services, all classes, or none. Further fine tune your selecting by ticking or unticking individual checkboxes for each class.
Searching Information Files
If you check the “Include Information Files” icon before submitting a term search, the search engine will also search all information files in selected classes. If an information file exists for a class, hierarchy group, or good or service, the icon is displayed in search results regardless of whether the information file contains matching terms. However, if information files were searched and the information file contains a search term, the icon is displayed with a green background. Clicking the icon for matching information files will show the search term highlighted in the resulting information file window.
URL-based access API
External applications can link into the NICE classification using a combination of a REST based API to access certain objects, and URL parameters to tweak the display of those objects.
In general, the URL parameters correspond to fields in the left interaction bar for a given tab. You can learn more about these parameters by entering search queries or interaction bar values and seeing how your selection affects the URL querystring.
Linking to specific Edition Version
The front page of a specific edition-version of the classification can be accessed at the URL http://www.wipo.int/nicepub/edition-<YYYYMMDD>/ where <YYYYMMDD> represents the date the requested edition-version went into force.
Linking to a specific Tab front page
The five tab front pages can be accessed as independent resources at the URL http://www.wipo.int/nicepub/edition-<YYYYMMDD>/<TAB_NAME>/ where <TAB_NAME> can be one of:
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taxonomy
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alphabetical
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general_remarks
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modifications
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search
The tab front pages can all take the specific URL parameters discussed in the individual sections below.
Linking to a specific taxonomy class
Each class in the taxonomy has its own REST based URL, accessible at the URL http://www.wipo.int/nicepub/edition-<YYYYMMDD>/taxonomy/class-<CLASS_NUMBER>/ where CLASS_NUMBER is an integer identifier between 1 and 45.
Additionally, URL parameters can be supplied in the querystring of the taxonomy class URL to tweak. A querystring is built by appending a question mark to the url and then supplying key = value pairs separated by ampersands for each URL parameter. For example, the following url links to class 1 and specifies English language and full mode.
http://www.wipo.int/nicepub/edition-20110101/taxonomy/class-1/?lang=en&mode=full
The following URL parameters can be specified with their possible values listed and defaults in italics:
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pagination
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yes
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no
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lang
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en
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fr
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enfr
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fren
-
-
mode
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full
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hierarchical
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flat
-
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explanatory_notes
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show
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hide
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basic_numbers
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show
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hide
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Additionally, you can link to a specific basic number in the taxonomy tab using a URL fragment. Simply append the value #gors_<BASIC_NUMBER> where BASIC_NUMBER is a six digit number to the URL (after any parameters if there are any) and the page will scroll to that term and highlight it in green.
Linking to a specific alphabetical listing
Each alphabetical listing has its own REST based URL accessible at the URL http://www.wipo.int/nicepub/edition-<YYYYMMDD>/alphabetical/<CLASS_TYPE>/<LETTER>/ where CLASS_TYPE can be either goods or services and LETTER is one of the 26 letters in the Roman alphabet. The querystring URL parameters are:
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pagination
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yes
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no
-
-
lang
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en
-
fr
-
enfr
-
fren
-
Linking to specific class modifications
Each class modification listing has its own REST based URL accessible at the URL http://www.wipo.int/nicepub/edition-<YYYYMMDD>/modifications/class-<CLASS_NUMBER>/ where CLASS_NUMBER is an integer identifier between 1 and 45.
The querystring URL parameters are:
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pagination
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yes
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no
-
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lang
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en
-
fr
-
enfr
-
fren
-
Linking to search results
You can link to a basic number search result at the URL http://www.wipo.int/nicepub/edition-20110101/search/basic_number/?q=<BASIC_NUMBER> where BASIC_NUMBER is the basic number you want to link to. Note that the value in this case is displayed as part of the querystring, using the letter q (short for query) to identify the search term.
Linking to a term search result is done at the URL http://www.wipo.int/nicepub/edition-20110101/search/results/?q=<SEARCH_TERM> where SEARCH_TERM is the term you want to search for. In both cases, the following additional querystring parameters can be supplied:
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lang
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en
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fr
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enfr
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fren
-
-
mode
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full
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hierarchical
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flat
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-
explanatory_notes
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show
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hide
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-
basic_numbers
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show
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hide
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info_files
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on
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off
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-
classes
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any of the numbers 1-45
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this parameter can be specified multiple times to select multiple classes
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