The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presents his compliments to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and, in accordance with the provisions of Article 16(5) of the Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification of March 24, 1971, has the honor to notify him that the Government of the German Democratic Republic deposited on August 20, 1976, its instrument of accession to the said Agreement.
Furthermore, this instrument of accession contains the following declaration:
"In its position on Article 12, paragraph (3) of the Agreement which says that the provisions of Article 24 of the Stockholm Act of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property shall apply to this Agreement as far as such application concerns colonial areas and other dependent territories, the German Democratic Republic is guided by the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (Res. 1514 XV) of December 14, 1960) which proclaim the necessity to bring to a speedy and unconditional end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations." (Translation by the German Democratic Republic).
Pursuant to the provisions of Article 13 (1)(b), the said Agreement will enter into force, with respect to the German Democratic Republic, one year after the date of this notification, that is, on August 24, 1977.
August 24, 1976