ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Strasbourg Agreement Concerning the International Patent Classification

Okay little one, have you ever played a game where you have to sort different toys or objects according to their types like dolls, cars, and balls? That's what the Strasbourg Agreement is all about but for inventions instead of toys!

The Strasbourg Agreement was created to help people from different countries understand each other better when they want to protect their new inventions. You see, there are many inventors all over the world who create different things, such as machines, medicine or special tools. But, they need to make sure they have exclusive ownership of their inventions, which means nobody else can copy their ideas and make money out of them without their permission.

Now, imagine that an inventor from America creates a new machine and wants to protect it from other people trying to steal his ideas. He can file for a patent which is like a special document that says he invented it. But, people from other countries would have a hard time understanding what this machine does and how it works if it is written in English. That's where the Strasbourg Agreement comes in!

The Agreement helps people from different countries describe their inventions using a list of codes or categories that are the same all over the world. So, instead of describing the machine word by word, they can give it a code that everyone will understand. It's like if we all used the same toy categories when sorting toys, it will be easier for everyone to understand which toys go where.

This way, people from different countries can communicate better and understand each other when they want to patent their inventions. It makes things fair and easy to understand because everybody has the same list of codes, and they can use them to describe their inventions, no matter what country they are from. And that's how the Strasbourg Agreement helps inventors all over the world to protect their new ideas!