The short answer: the law that determines what a trademark is and how it is protected changes very seldom from one year to the next. What does get adjusted regularly is the practice surrounding it: the Nice Classification used to divide classes, the systems of the BOIP and the EUIPO used to file and publish applications, and sometimes the fees charged by a bureau. For anyone who has their trademark monitored, that is the part that really matters.
Who does this affect? Especially entrepreneurs who already have a registered trademark and have it monitored against new applications, and those who are preparing a new application soon and need to choose which classes to use. A change in the classification does not affect your existing registration, but it does affect the way new trademarks are classified — and therefore the way a monitoring service must recognize them.
What does and does not change
The core of trademark law — what a trademark is, when it is distinctive enough, how long protection lasts — is set out in the Benelux Treaty on Intellectual Property and the Trade Mark Regulation. These texts are not rewritten every year. What is updated fairly regularly are the technical layers around them: the division into classes, the harmonized term list used by offices such as the EUIPO and the BOIP, and the systems used to file and publish applications. These are not legislative changes, but they do have an impact on how a trademark application looks in practice.
The classification is updated periodically
The Nice Classification, the international system used to divide products and services into 45 classes, is reviewed periodically. Terms are added, existing terms are defined more precisely, and sometimes a description shifts from one class to another. Such a review does not change trademarks that are already registered — the scope of protection of an existing trademark remains based on the terms with which it was applied for at the time. But new applications are filed against the current term list, and that is precisely the register through which a monitoring service searches.
For anyone filing a trademark application now, this means above all that the choice of classes must be based on the current classification, not on a list from a few years ago. Anyone who wants to check this for their own situation can get an indication of classes and conflicts in a few questions without needing an account straight away.
What this means for ongoing monitoring
If your trademark is already registered and you have it monitored, nothing changes in your registration due to a classification change. What does change is the field in which searches are conducted for similar new applications: new filings can come in under updated terms that overlap substantively with your class, even if the wording is different from when you applied yourself. A monitoring service that only searches on the old, literal term will miss such signals. That is exactly why the scan behind the scenes is adjusted periodically to the current registers and term list, rather than to a snapshot from the year of registration.
How that adjustment works in detail and which sources are consulted for it is explained at the page explaining where the information comes from. That is also the place to see that it concerns the public registers of the BOIP and the EUIPO, not an internal assessment.
What this means for a new application
If you don't yet have a trade mark and are preparing an application this year, it's wise to base your class selection on the current version of the classification, rather than on an example you found earlier of a similar business. A term that was interpreted broadly a few years ago may now be more precisely defined, which could affect what is and isn't covered by your protection. The service fee and monitoring costs are set out clearly on the page with current fees, separate from the fees charged by the office itself.
How you keep track of this yourself
For the precise, current state of the classification and the registers, the BOIP register, the EUIPO database and the official Nice Classification remain the source. If you're unsure whether a change has implications for a specific application or registration, it's best to raise this with a trade mark attorney — we provide no legal advice on this and make no ruling on individual cases. Frequently asked questions about monitoring a trade mark are gathered on the page explaining monitoring and other practical questions.
Curious whether your trade mark is well-positioned, or where your classes currently stand? The free trade mark check gives you a first indication in just a few minutes, without needing an account.