What a class actually covers

Trademarks are registered against goods and services grouped into 45 numbered classes under the Nice Classification. People treat the number as a fence around their rights. It is closer to a filing convention, and reading it as a fence is how conflicts get missed.

The shape of it

Classes 1 to 34 are goods. Classes 35 to 45 are services. Each registration lists a specification — the actual goods or services claimed — within its classes. Two marks can sit in the same class without conflicting, and in different classes while conflicting badly. What matters is whether the goods themselves are similar in the eyes of the market.

The classes a small business usually lands in

Commonly used classes, in outline. The official class headings and explanatory notes are the authority.
Class	Broadly
9	Downloadable software, apps, recorded media, hardware and electronic devices
16	Printed matter, stationery, publications on paper
25	Clothing, footwear, headwear — where merchandise ends up
35	Advertising, business management, retail and wholesale services
36	Financial, insurance and real-estate services
41	Education, training, publishing, entertainment
42	Software as a service, design, scientific and technological services
45	Legal services, security, personal and social services

The software problem

Software is the clearest illustration that the number is not the boundary. A downloadable application sits in class 9. The same functionality delivered over the web sits in class 42. Most modern products are both, or move from one to the other as the delivery model changes, and a business that filed only in 9 because it shipped an app can find its protection thin when it becomes a web service.

For searching, the implication is the opposite and just as important: a conflict with your web product may be sitting in class 9, and filtering your search to 42 will hide it completely.

Class 35 is not a wrapper for everything

Class 35 covers retail and business services, and it attracts people who think it covers “selling things” in general. It does not cover the things sold. A shop selling clothing may need 35 for the retail service and 25 for the clothing itself if it brands its own. Filing only 35 and assuming the goods are covered is a common and expensive misreading.

Specifications age badly

A specification describes what you do at the moment you file. Businesses change what they sell; the registration does not follow. When you search, read the specification's actual wording rather than the class heading — and when you eventually file, describe what you will plausibly be doing in five years, not only this quarter.

Questions

Can I file in every class to be safe?

You can file in many, and each one costs a fee, but breadth without use is fragile. Most systems allow a registration to be challenged for non-use after a continuous period, so classes covering things you never actually sell can be stripped out later by someone who wants the space. File for what you do and what you credibly plan to do.

Two businesses have the same name in different classes. How is that allowed?

Because the test takes in similarity of goods as well as similarity of signs. Identical names genuinely coexist across unrelated trades, and always have. The caution is that “unrelated” is judged by how the market sees the goods rather than by the class numbers, and that a mark with a strong reputation can reach beyond its own goods.

Where do I find the official class definitions?

WIPO publishes the Nice Classification, including the class headings and the explanatory notes that decide the awkward cases. National offices publish their own searchable lists of accepted terms, which are usually the faster way to find where a specific product belongs. Links are below.

Reviewed 2026-09-20. Outline only — the official classification is the authority, and class allocation for a specific product is a question for a professional.