Content

Designs

Yellow document folders with a single blue file

Locarno Classification for Designs

Locarno Agreement

The Locarno Classification allows you to organise registered designs and to make them easier to research. This search has the additional advantage of being language independent. To that end, the Locarno Classification comprises a total of 32 classes and 241 subclasses with detailed descriptions of goods. If you want to protect, for example, the form of a new automobile prototype, you will find "automotive bodies" under class 12 "Means of transport or hoisting" in subclass 12-08 "Motor cars, buses and lorries". By means of the classification symbol 12-08, you can search for similar car designs in various design databases.

The design application must contain a product indication. This means that design applicants must indicate specific goods for which they intend to use the design. The terms contained in the list of goods in the Locarno Classification must be used for a design application. The primary purpose of the classification is search; unlike, for example, in the case of trade marks, it does not specify the scope of protection of the design.

Current version of the Locarno Classification (15th edition)

The Locarno Classification and the Product List are revised at regular intervals in order to keep them up to date.

The Product List in the version 2026_LOC15 was updated on 1 January 2026 and is valid for all design applications filed on or after 1 January 2026. The classification of classes and subclasses in the 15th edition of the Locarno Classification remains in force.

Search facilities, more detailed information

The DPMA offers a search engine facility to help you find appropriate product names:

The Einteilung der Klassen und Unterklassen published annually in the externer Link Bundesanzeiger (Federal Gazette) (Search term: Locarno-Klassifikation) and the list of goods are in line with the content of the fifteenth edition of the International Classification under the Locarno Agreement (Locarno Classification). New national names of goods are also included in this list of goods.
The authentic versions of the Locarno Classification are prepared in English and French and published by the externer Link WIPO.

Picture: iStock.com/vasabii

Last updated: 23 December 2025