What are trade mark classes?

Trademark classes divide goods and services into fixed categories in

Trademark classes are the categories into which the Nice Classification divides all conceivable goods and services, so that a trademark registration precisely indicates what protection applies. There are classes for goods — physical products such as clothing, food or software — and classes for services, such as advertising, education or hospitality. A trademark is never registered in general, but always for one or more specific classes, and the protection provided by the registration applies in principle only within those chosen classes.

The choice of classes determines in practice what a registration is worth: a name that is registered for clothing normally provides no basis to prevent that same name being used for software or hospitality services. For an entrepreneur, this means that classes are chosen so that they align with current and reasonably foreseeable activities, because a class that is missing from the application cannot usually simply be added to an existing registration afterwards. The harmonized TMclass terminology database helps to find the exact description used in the registers within each class, so that the application aligns