The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) currently has 45 different international classes in which goods and/or services may be classified into. Specifically, classes 1 – 34 are reserved for goods, while classes 35 – 45 are reserved for services.
When an applicant first files a trademark application in the USPTO, whether the application is filed in-use or intent-to-use, the applicant is required to list out which class or classes of goods and services their application encompasses.
The Nice Agreement signed in 1957, first established this international classification system. Since then, a new edition is published every five (5) years, with updates published yearly. Because of its worldwide acceptance, applying for trademarks internationally is made exponentially more convenient as all member countries to the Nice Agreement use the same classes for their goods and services.
Examples of common international classifications include:
- Class 1: Chemicals
- Class 5: Pharmaceuticals
- Class 12: Vehicles
- Class 25: Clothing
- Class 29: Toys and Sporting Goods
- Class 35: Advertising and Business
- Class 42: Computers and Scientific