The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) presents his compliments to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and has the honor to notify him of the deposit by the Government of the Republic of Cuba, on April 18, 1997, of its instrument of accession to the Vienna Agreement Establishing an International Classification of the Figurative Elements of Marks, done at Vienna on June 12, 1973, as amended on October 1, 1985.
The said instrument of accession contains the following declarations:
"The Government of the Republic of Cuba regrets the inclusion of provisions of the kind contained in Article 12(3) of the Vienna Agreement, which refer to Article 24 of the Stockholm Act (1967) of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, following the adoption of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples - Resolution 1514 adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 14, 1960 - which proclaims the necessity of bringing to a speedy and unconditional end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations.
"The Government of the Republic of Cuba likewise does not consider itself bound by the provisions of Article 16(1) of the Vienna Agreement, under which the International Court of Justice has jurisdiction in any dispute between two or more countries over the interpretation or application of the Agreement. The Republic of Cuba maintains that, for a dispute to be referred to the International Court of Justice, the consent of all the parties to the dispute should be obtained in each specific case." (Translation)
The said Agreement will enter into force, with respect to the Republic of Cuba, on July 18, 1997.
April 18, 1997