Here is a fact that surprises almost every founder the first time they hear it: there are two companies in the United States that both own the word "Delta" as a trademark, and neither one can stop the other. Delta Air Lines flies you to Atlanta. Delta Faucet keeps your kitchen sink from leaking. They coexist, peacefully and lawfully, because trademark rights are not rights in a word--they are rights in a word as used on particular goods or services. The faucet company owns "Delta" for plumbing fixtures. The airline owns it for transporting passengers. The two never meet in the marketplace, no consumer is confused, and so the law lets both flourish.

That single idea--that a trademark is tethered to specific commercial categories rather than floating free over the entire economy--is the reason the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) sorts everything you can buy or hire into exactly 45 numbered boxes. Those boxes are the trademark classes, and choosing the right ones is one of the most consequential, most under-appreciated decisions in the entire registration process. Get them right and you build a fence around exactly the territory you occupy. Get them wrong and you can pay for protection you do not need, miss protection you desperately do, hand a competitor an opening, or simply waste hundreds of dollars in non-refundable government fees.

This guide is the field manual for those 45 boxes. We will explain what the classes are and where they came from, why the "Delta problem" works the way it does, how class choices ripple through the cost and scope of your registration, what the USPTO's massive 2025 fee overhaul means for your wallet, and how to actually pick classes using the agency's own searchable database. We will also pin down a subtlety that even seasoned filers garble: classification is, in the USPTO's own words, "strictly ministerial"--it sorts your goods for administrative convenience and does not, by itself, define the legal scope of your rights. Then we will take a readable tour of all 45 classes--not as a dry table to skim past, but as a quick walk through the whole of human commerce, from industrial chemicals to legal services, with a few surprises along the way. Whether you are a founder filing your first application, a paralegal building an intake form, a lawyer brushing up, or a judge trying to understand why a likelihood-of-confusion brief keeps talking about "coordinated classes," you will leave knowing how the system works and where its traps are hidden.

A quick note on what this article assumes. We define every term of art on first use, and we keep the law accurate as of mid-2026 while flagging the parts that are genuinely fast-moving (the fee schedule above all). For the mechanics of actually preparing and filing an application, see our companion piece on how to file a trademark application with the USPTO and the step-by-step federal trademark application checklists. For the big-picture lifecycle of a mark, the trademark process is the place to start, and our broader trademark registration guide sets the full sequence in context. This piece zooms in on one crucial layer: classification.

What a Trademark Class Actually Is

Start with the foundational concept, because everything else follows from it.

A trademark is a word, name, symbol, logo, slogan, sound, color, or other source-identifier that tells consumers who stands behind a product or service. Under the Lanham Act, the federal trademark statute, a mark is something used "to identify and distinguish" one person's goods or services from another's and "to indicate the source" of those goods, even if that source is unknown (15 U.S.C. § 1127). The legal job of a trademark is to prevent confusion about source--to make sure that when you reach for a can of a particular soda or hire a particular accounting firm, you get the company you intended. (For the wider picture of what can function as a mark, see our trademark overview on the subject matter of trademark law; for the bedrock idea that marks protect goodwill rather than words in the abstract, trademark basics is a friendly starting point.)

Because confusion only happens when two products compete for the same buyer's attention, the law has always cared intensely about what a mark is used on. The trademark classes are simply the administrative machinery that captures that "what." A trademark class (also called an international class, or IC, on USPTO documents) is a numbered category that groups together related kinds of goods or services. There are 45 of them. Classes 1 through 34 cover goods--physical things you can pick up and own, from chemicals to clothing to cigars. Classes 35 through 45 cover services--things you do for other people, from advertising to telecommunications to legal work. The framework is codified for U.S. purposes at 37 C.F.R. § 2.85, which adopts the international list, and the agency's internal playbook--the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP)--devotes its entire 1400 chapter to classification (see TMEP §§ 1401.02, 1401.03).

When you apply to register a mark, you are not registering the mark in a vacuum. You are registering it for a specific list of goods or services, and each item on that list lives in one of the 45 classes. Your registration protects the mark only within the specific goods and services you claimed and paid for. Step outside that fenced territory and your registered rights thin out fast.

This is why the Delta story works, and it is worth seeing a few more examples because the pattern is so counterintuitive to newcomers. Dove is a beauty-soap brand (Class 3) and, separately, a chocolate brand (Class 30)--two different companies, two different classes, no conflict. Pandora sells charm bracelets (Class 14) while another Pandora streams music (Classes 38 and 41). Lotus has made cars and made software. Stanley has been both hand tools and insulated drinkware (an instructive near-miss, since both can implicate housewares). Identical words, different lanes, lawful coexistence.

The flip side is just as important. Because protection is goods-bound, a registration aimed at the wrong category can be nearly worthless. Imagine Acme Athletics, a hypothetical startup that sells branded running shoes but registers its name only in Class 28 (Toys and Sporting Goods) because someone assumed "athletics equals sports." Shoes are Class 25 (Clothing). When a copycat starts selling "Acme" sneakers, Acme's Class 28 registration--covering, say, dumbbells and yoga mats--does far less work than the founders imagined. The lesson lands early: the class is not a formality. It is a proxy for the perimeter of your legal rights.

A Subtlety Worth Getting Right: Classification Is "Ministerial"

Before we go further, we have to retire a myth that even experienced filers carry around, because it changes how you should think about the whole system.

You will often hear that the class number "defines your rights." Strictly speaking, that is wrong, and the USPTO says so. Classification is "strictly ministerial," adopted "for the [USPTO's] administrative convenience," and it "does not affect the scope of the resulting registration or the applicant's rights in the mark" (TMEP § 1401.03(b)). What actually defines your rights is the identification of goods and services--the specific list of products and services you describe. The class number is just the filing cabinet drawer the agency uses to organize and search those identifications. The Federal Circuit has made the practical version of this point repeatedly: each application stands on its own particular record, and the precise identification controls what the examiner evaluates (see In re Nett Designs, Inc., 236 F.3d 1339, 1342 (Fed. Cir. 2001)).

Why belabor a distinction that sounds academic? Because it resolves two things that otherwise look contradictory. First, it explains why two marks in the same class can coexist while two marks in different classes can collide: the law looks at the real goods, not the drawer they sit in. Second, it explains why getting the class "right" still matters enormously even though the class is "only" administrative. The class drives your fees (charged per class), drives the scope of the USPTO's conflict search (the examiner cross-searches related and coordinated classes), and drives the completeness of your protection (if you fail to file in a class your products occupy, you simply have no registration there). So the right mental posture is this: classification does not create your rights, but it is the lever that determines how much you pay, how thoroughly you are screened for conflicts, and whether your real-world products are covered at all. Treat it as ministerial in theory and decisive in practice.

Where the 45 Classes Came From: The Nice Classification

The classes are not a homegrown American invention. They come from an international treaty, and knowing that history clears up a lot of confusion (including why you will sometimes see references to old, defunct U.S. class numbers).

In 1957, diplomats meeting in Nice, France, signed the Nice Agreement Concerning the International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks. The agreement established a single, shared list of classes so that a mark filed in Tokyo, Toronto, and Topeka could be sorted the same way everywhere. The resulting system is called the Nice Classification, abbreviated NCL, and pronounced like the city ("neece"), not like the English adjective. It is administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva.

The United States joined the Nice Agreement in 1973. Before that, the U.S. ran its own homemade scheme--roughly 52 classes for goods and a handful for services, plus separate buckets for collective-membership marks and certification marks. When the country adopted Nice, those old U.S. class numbers were superseded. You may still stumble across them in very old registrations or in obsolete online lists; ignore them. Today, when you file, the USPTO's system speaks Nice, and 37 C.F.R. § 2.85 makes the international classes the controlling system for domestic filings. (For how marks are obtained, licensed, and kept alive over their lifetime, see trademark overview--obtaining protection and licensing.)

Two further wrinkles are worth knowing. First, the Nice Classification is revised constantly. WIPO publishes a new edition every five years and an interim version every January in between; as of 2026 the system is on its twelfth edition, with annual updates that add, move, and retire individual items as commerce evolves (think electric scooters, smart watches, and downloadable software, all of which forced the list to grow). Second, although nearly every developed economy uses Nice, fewer than 90 of the world's roughly 195 countries are formal parties to the treaty, and some non-members use slightly different conventions. Canada, for example, did not accede until 2019. So while Nice makes international filing dramatically more uniform than it once was, it is not perfectly universal. If you plan to protect a brand abroad, confirm the classification rules of each target country rather than assuming the U.S. list controls everywhere.

The treaty's quiet payoff is enormous. Because the U.S. classes map directly onto the international ones, your U.S. application can serve as the "home" filing that anchors an international registration under the Madrid Protocol (implemented domestically through Lanham Act §§ 60-74, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1141-1141n), letting you extend protection to dozens of countries through a single WIPO application keyed to the same class numbers. Standardization is what makes that one-stop global filing possible--and why an inaccurate class on the U.S. filing can ripple outward into every country you later designate.

Class Headings Are Not Descriptions: The Most Common Beginner Mistake

Before we tour the classes, internalize one rule that trips up nearly every first-time filer.

Each class has a short official title and a one- or two-sentence class heading that summarizes its scope--"Clothing, footwear, headgear" for Class 25, for example. Those headings are useful for orientation, but you cannot use a bare class heading (or a bare class number) as your actual identification of goods and services. The USPTO requires a specific, definite, accurate description of what you actually sell (37 C.F.R. § 2.32(a)(6); TMEP § 1402.01). The agency's working test is plain: an identification is acceptable if it describes the goods or services so that an ordinary English speaker can understand what they are, and it does so with enough particularity to allow proper classification. "Clothing" alone is too broad; the examiner wants "t-shirts, sweatshirts, and baseball caps." A class number with nothing else--"International Class 25"--is never acceptable on its own.

This matters for two reasons. First, the breadth of the U.S. requirement is unusually strict by world standards. Many countries happily let you register an entire class heading and thereby claim the whole class. The United States does not; the USPTO insists on a particularized list, and you only get rights in the specific items you name (and their close cousins). Second--and this is where money enters--the way you describe your goods now directly affects your filing fee, thanks to the 2025 reforms discussed below. Pulling your descriptions from the USPTO's pre-approved menu (the ID Manual) keeps fees low; writing your own custom prose triggers surcharges.

There is also a one-way door you should know about before you file. Once an application is submitted, you may narrow your identification but you can never broaden it (TMEP § 1402.06). If you start with "hats" and later wish you had said "all headgear," you are out of luck; if you start with "headgear" you can prune it down to "hats" anytime. This asymmetry is a quiet argument for thinking carefully--but not recklessly broadly--about your descriptions up front, and it is yet another reason to draft them against the ID Manual rather than improvising.

So the mental model is: the class number tells the world which neighborhood you live in; the identification of goods and services is your actual street address. You need both, and the address has to be precise--and you can only ever move to a smaller address, never a bigger one.

The USPTO Trademark ID Manual: Your Most Important Free Tool

If you remember one practical resource from this entire article, make it this one.

The USPTO Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual--universally called the ID Manual or Trademark ID Manual--is a free, searchable database of tens of thousands of pre-approved descriptions, each already assigned to its correct class. It is the official answer key to two questions you will ask on every application: (1) What class does my product fall into? and (2) What exact wording will the USPTO accept without an objection?

Here is how it works in practice. Suppose Acme Athletics wants to register for its running shoes, its branded water bottles, and its fitness-coaching app. You search the ID Manual for "running shoes" and the database returns an approved entry--"athletic footwear"--tagged to Class 25. You search "water bottle" and find drinkware entries living in Class 21 (Housewares), which surprises the beverage-minded founder. You search "fitness app" and find "downloadable mobile applications for tracking fitness" living in Class 9 (the electronics/software class) and "providing online non-downloadable fitness training" as a service in Class 41. In about ten minutes, the founder who thought "we're a sneaker company, that's one class" has learned the brand actually spans Classes 9, 21, 25, and 41--four classes, four fees.

That ten-minute exercise is the single highest-leverage thing a filer can do, for three reasons:

  • It tells you your true class count, which is the main driver of cost. Most real businesses span more classes than they expect, because a single product line touches goods (the thing), software (the app), and services (the support, the subscription, the experience).
  • It gives you wording the examiner will accept, which speeds your application and--post-2025--keeps your fees at the floor rather than triggering surcharges.
  • It surfaces classification surprises before you pay. Software is the classic trap: a "downloadable" app is a Class 9 good, but the "non-downloadable" software-as-a-service version of the very same product is a Class 42 service. The line between Class 9 and Class 42 swallows a huge amount of modern technology law; the ID Manual is how you stay on the right side of it.

The ID Manual is refreshed every Thursday, so newly emerged products (today's drones and AI tools were yesterday's puzzles) get acceptable descriptions added over time. If your offering is so novel that nothing in the Manual fits, you are allowed to write your own custom identification--but, as we will see, that choice now costs more, and the examining attorney still has to approve it. When you must write custom language, draft it to mirror the structure and specificity of existing Manual entries; that is the surest path to acceptance. (Note that if you omit classification altogether, the examiner will assign it for you--but doing so delays the application and surrenders control over how your goods are characterized, so it is no shortcut.)

How Classes Drive Scope, Cost, and Conflict

Class choices touch three things at once: how much of the market your mark protects (scope), how much you pay (cost), and how likely you are to collide with someone else (conflict). Take them in turn.

Scope: you own what you claim

Your registration is a fence, and the identification plus its classes are the survey stakes. Claim Class 25 for "t-shirts," and you can stop confusingly similar marks on shirts and closely related apparel. You cannot, on the strength of that registration alone, stop a software company in Class 9 or a restaurant in Class 43 from using a similar name, because those are different lanes with different customers. The breadth of your protection is, quite literally, the breadth of your goods coverage. This is why a business that sells across categories--an apparel line that also runs a retail store (Class 35) and a loyalty app (Class 9)--should think carefully about which lanes are worth defending. (Remember the ministerial caveat from earlier: technically your rights flow from the identified goods, not the class label--but in practice the two move together, because you cannot claim goods without landing them in a class.)

Cost: the fee is per class, every time

This is the part that empties wallets. USPTO filing fees are charged per class, not per application. A single application can cover multiple classes, but you pay the base fee again for each one. File in one class and you pay once; file in four classes and you pay four times. The same per-class logic follows the mark through its whole life--maintenance filings (the Section 8 declaration of continued use under 15 U.S.C. § 1058 and the Section 9 renewal under 15 U.S.C. § 1059) are also charged per class, so a four-class registration is four times as expensive to keep alive as a one-class registration, decade after decade. Those upkeep filings have their own unforgiving deadlines, and the USPTO trademark application checklists walk through where the per-class obligations recur from filing through registration.

Because the cost scales linearly with class count, the discipline is to claim the classes you genuinely need and resist the urge to "cover everything." More on the specific 2025 dollar figures in the next section.

Conflict: more classes, more collisions, but watch the related ones

Every class you add is another corner of the marketplace where a prior user might already sit, blocking you. Searching more classes during clearance therefore means a higher chance of finding a problem. But here is the subtler point that catches even experienced filers: conflicts are not confined to identical class numbers. The USPTO and the courts assess likelihood of confusion based on the actual relatedness of the goods and services, not on whether two marks happen to share a class. (This is the ministerial principle in action: the examiner cares about the goods, not the drawer.)

That cuts both ways. Two marks in the same class can coexist if their goods are unrelated enough (Class 25 is vast--athletic socks and bespoke wedding gowns rarely confuse anyone). And two marks in different classes can absolutely conflict if their goods are commercially related. A famous structural example: the USPTO treats certain class pairs as coordinated classes--groups of classes whose goods and services so often travel together in the marketplace that the agency cross-searches them automatically during examination. Clothing (Class 25), for instance, is coordinated with retail clothing stores (Class 35) and with the textile and accessory classes, because a single fashion brand routinely spans all of them. Restaurant services (Class 43) are coordinated with food and beverage goods (Classes 29, 30, 32). Software (Class 9) is coordinated with computer services (Class 42) and telecommunications (Class 38).

The practical upshot: when you clear a mark, do not search only your own class. Search the coordinated and related classes too, because an examiner will, and so will a savvy opponent. A clothing brand that clears Class 25 but ignores Class 35 may sail through filing only to draw a refusal--or worse, a later opposition--from a retailer using a similar name. Our deep dive on how to conduct a comprehensive trademark clearance search walks through exactly how to map the related-goods perimeter, and navigating the maze of trademark confusion explains the multifactor confusion analysis the examiner actually applies (the DuPont factors, in USPTO parlance).

A worked example ties it together. Acme Athletics files in Class 25 for athletic footwear and apparel and clears that class cleanly. Because clothing is coordinated with retail services, a careful clearance also checks Class 35--and turns up "Acme Sportswear," a regional chain of athletic-apparel stores with a prior registration. Same commercial space, different class number, real conflict. Catching that in clearance (for a few hundred dollars of search time) is infinitely cheaper than discovering it after Acme has printed banners, built a website, and drawn an opposition or an infringement letter. The class system rewards filers who think in terms of markets, not just numbers.

The 2025 USPTO Fee Restructuring: What Changed and Why It Matters

Trademark fees are the most date-sensitive part of this whole topic, and they changed dramatically very recently, so read this section with one eye on the calendar and always confirm current numbers on the official USPTO fee schedule before you file. (Our walkthrough of how to file a trademark application with the USPTO tracks the live figures alongside the filing steps.)

For years, U.S. applicants chose among three application "flavors"--TEAS Plus ($250/class), TEAS Reduced Fee ($350/class), and TEAS Standard ($350/class in its later years)--each with different paperwork requirements. That tiered system is the world the old version of this article described, and you will still see those figures all over the internet. They are obsolete. On January 18, 2025, the USPTO retired the TEAS-tier structure entirely and replaced it with a single base application fee plus a set of behavior-based surcharges. The redesign was deliberate: the agency wanted to reward applicants who file clean, complete, ID-Manual-based applications and to recover the extra examination cost imposed by sprawling, custom-written, or incomplete ones.

Under the structure that took effect in 2025, the framework works like this (figures are per class and were set by the USPTO's final fee rule; verify the exact current amounts before filing):

  • A single base application fee per class of $350, replacing the old TEAS Plus/Standard split. There is no longer a cheaper "Plus" tier and a pricier "Standard" tier--there is one base fee, and surcharges layer on top of it if you make the examiner's job harder.
  • A surcharge for "insufficient information" of $100 per class, triggered when an application is missing elements the USPTO wants up front (the kind of completeness the old TEAS Plus tier required). File a complete application and you avoid it.
  • A surcharge for using free-form (custom) identifications of $200 per class. If you draft your own description of goods or services instead of selecting pre-approved language from the ID Manual, you pay extra--per class. This is the single most important behavioral lever in the new system: picking your wording from the ID Manual can save you $200 per class.
  • A surcharge for lengthy free-form text of an additional $200 per class for each extra block of characters (the rule counts in increments, currently per 1,000 characters) beyond the first in a custom identification. Long, run-on custom descriptions can stack this charge.

Run the numbers for Acme Athletics, filing in four classes (9, 21, 25, 41). If Acme files a complete application and pulls every description from the ID Manual, it pays roughly $350 x 4 = $1,400 in government fees, full stop. If Acme instead writes a custom, free-form identification in each class, it adds $200 x 4 = $800 in surcharges--a $2,200 filing--for descriptions that may be no better, and possibly worse, than the approved ones it could have picked for free. Same four classes, same scope, but a careless approach to wording just cost $800. Multiply that across maintenance over decades and the discipline of using the ID Manual pays for itself many times over.

The reform's logic is now obvious in hindsight: the USPTO turned the ID Manual from a convenience into a financial incentive. The cheapest, fastest, most reliable application is the one whose every identification comes straight from the Manual--and that is exactly the application the USPTO wants, because it is the easiest to examine and the least likely to over-claim. Note as well that the 2025 rule raised maintenance fees (Section 8 and Section 9 filings) and several other line items; those, too, are per class. Because Congress and the USPTO adjust fees periodically and the agency has signaled more changes may follow, treat every dollar figure in this article as a snapshot, not gospel. The structure--per-class base fee, plus surcharges for incompleteness and for custom wording--is the durable lesson; the exact amounts will drift.

Multi-Class Applications: One Filing, Many Lanes

A single application can claim as many classes as your business honestly needs--this is a multi-class (or combined) application, expressly permitted by 37 C.F.R. § 2.86. It is usually the right move when one brand genuinely spans several categories, because it keeps everything under one serial number, one filing date, and one renewal calendar.

A few mechanics are worth knowing. Each class within a multi-class application is, in important respects, treated as its own mini-application: it carries its own fee, its own identification of goods, its own specimen of use (proof you actually use the mark in that class), and--critically--its own fate. If the examiner refuses one class (say, the description is unacceptable or there is a conflicting prior mark), you can often resolve or delete that single class and let the rest of the application proceed to registration. You can also divide an application under 37 C.F.R. § 2.87, splitting troubled classes into a separate child application so the clean classes register without waiting--a frequently overlooked maneuver that can rescue an otherwise stalled filing.

The corollary is the per-class specimen requirement. Each class needs its own proof that the mark is used (or will be used) on those particular goods or services. The USPTO generally requires only one specimen per class--even when several goods are listed in that class--but the examiner can demand additional or substitute specimens if the range of goods in a class is broad or internally varied (TMEP § 904.01). A photo of a t-shirt bearing the mark proves use in Class 25; it does nothing for the Class 41 fitness-coaching service, which needs its own specimen (a screenshot of the coaching webpage showing the mark in connection with the service, for instance). Filers sometimes assume one specimen covers a whole application--it does not, and a missing per-class specimen is a frequent stumbling block. The federal trademark application checklists lay out the per-class evidentiary requirements in detail.

One more strategic note. Because trademark rights flow from use in commerce, you should claim only the classes you use or have a genuine bona fide intent to use in the near future (the statutory basis for an intent-to-use application is Lanham Act § 1(b), 15 U.S.C. § 1051(b)). Filing in classes you do not actually serve is not a clever land grab--it is grounds for later cancellation, and (in an intent-to-use application) you will eventually have to prove use in each class or abandon it. Recent USPTO enforcement against fraudulent and overbroad filings has only sharpened that risk. Claim your real lanes, not aspirational ones.

A Readable Tour of the 45 Classes

Now the fun part. Below is the whole of commerce, sorted into 45 boxes. We will not just list them--we will walk through them in groups, because the classes cluster into intuitive families once you stop treating them as a random numbered list. Read this as a tour, not a table. By the end you will have a working mental map of where almost anything belongs.

A reminder before we set off: these are summaries. The real scope of each class is defined by the Nice class headings, the explanatory notes, and (for U.S. filing) the ID Manual. Use the descriptions below to orient yourself, then confirm the precise wording in the Manual.

Goods: Classes 1-34

The goods classes are roughly organized by material and industry, marching from raw inputs through finished consumer products.

The industrial and chemical block (Classes 1-5). We begin at the very start of the supply chain. Class 1 (Chemicals) covers industrial, scientific, and agricultural chemicals--unprocessed plastics, fertilizers, fire-extinguishing compounds, industrial adhesives. Class 2 (Paints) is exactly what it sounds like: paints, varnishes, lacquers, colorants, and rust preservatives. Class 3 (Cosmetics and Cleaning Preparations) is one of the most heavily used consumer classes--soaps, perfumes, cosmetics, hair products, toothpaste, and non-medicated cleaners. (Note the boundary: a medicated cream jumps to Class 5.) Class 4 (Lubricants and Fuels) holds industrial oils, greases, fuels, and--charmingly--candles. Class 5 (Pharmaceuticals) is enormous and consequential: pharmaceutical and veterinary preparations, dietary supplements, baby food, medical dressings, disinfectants, and pesticides. The Class 3/Class 5 line (cosmetic versus medicated) is one of the most litigated boundaries in personal-care branding.

The metals, machines, and tools block (Classes 6-8). Class 6 (Metal Goods) is the "made of metal" catchall--common metals, building materials of metal, pipes, safes, and metal hardware. Class 7 (Machinery) covers machines and machine tools, motors and engines (except for land vehicles, a recurring Nice quirk), and agricultural equipment. Class 8 (Hand Tools) is the small, tidy class for hand-operated tools, cutlery, and razors. The Class 7/Class 8 distinction is simply power versus hand: a powered drill is Class 7, a screwdriver is Class 8.

The electronics and instruments block (Classes 9-11). Class 9 (Electrical and Scientific Apparatus) deserves a spotlight, because in the modern economy it is arguably the single most important goods class. It covers scientific and measuring instruments, but also--crucially--computers, downloadable software and mobile apps, recorded media, eyewear, batteries, and a huge swath of consumer electronics. Nearly every tech company touches Class 9. Class 10 (Medical Apparatus) holds surgical and medical instruments, prosthetics, and orthopedic articles. Class 11 (Environmental Control Apparatus) is the "appliances that move air or water" class--lighting, heating, cooking, refrigerating, and sanitary equipment.

The vehicles, arms, and treasures block (Classes 12-14). Class 12 (Vehicles) covers apparatus for locomotion by land, air, or water--cars, boats, aircraft, bicycles, and their structural parts. Class 13 (Firearms) is the compact class for firearms, ammunition, explosives, and fireworks. Class 14 (Jewelry) holds precious metals, jewelry, gemstones, and--because they were historically luxury goods of precious materials--watches and clocks ("horological and chronometric instruments").

The everyday-materials block (Classes 15-21). Class 15 (Musical Instruments) is a one-line class: musical instruments, full stop. Class 16 (Paper Goods and Printed Matter) is broad and popular--paper, books, magazines, stationery, photographs, and packaging materials of paper or plastic. Class 17 (Rubber Goods) covers rubber, plastics in semi-finished form, insulating materials, and non-metal flexible pipes. Class 18 (Leather Goods) is the home of handbags, luggage, wallets, and--because of the material--umbrellas and animal harnesses. Class 19 (Nonmetallic Building Materials) mirrors Class 6 but for non-metal: lumber, stone, non-metal pipes, asphalt. Class 20 (Furniture) covers furniture, mirrors, picture frames, and finished goods of wood, plastic, and similar materials not classified elsewhere--a genuine catchall. Class 21 (Housewares and Glass) holds kitchen and household utensils, dishware, glassware, combs, brushes, and--note this--water bottles and drinkware, which surprises many a beverage startup.

The textiles block (Classes 22-27). Here the list walks you straight through how cloth gets made. Class 22 (Cordage and Fibers) covers ropes, nets, tents, sails, sacks, and raw textile fibers. Class 23 (Yarns and Threads) is the spun-fiber stage. Class 24 (Fabrics) is the woven-textile stage--cloth, bed linens, table covers. Class 25 (Clothing) is the finished-garment stage and one of the most crowded classes on the register: clothing, footwear, and headgear. Class 26 (Fancy Goods) holds the trimmings--lace, ribbons, buttons, zippers, artificial flowers. Class 27 (Floor Coverings) covers carpets, rugs, mats, linoleum, and non-textile wall hangings.

The leisure, food, and indulgence block (Classes 28-34). Class 28 (Toys and Sporting Goods) holds games, toys, gymnastic and sporting articles, and Christmas-tree decorations. Class 29 (Meats and Processed Foods) is the "savory and preserved" food class--meat, fish, poultry, dairy, eggs, edible oils, and preserved or frozen fruits and vegetables. Class 30 (Staple Foods) is the "pantry and bakery" class--coffee, tea, flour, bread, pastry, condiments, spices, and (a perennial trivia answer) chocolate. The Class 29/Class 30 split roughly tracks fridge-and-protein versus pantry-and-grain. Class 31 (Natural Agricultural Products) covers fresh, unprocessed produce, live plants and animals, seeds, and animal feed. Class 32 (Light Beverages) is beer plus non-alcoholic drinks--water, soda, juices, and syrups. Class 33 (Wine and Spirits) is all alcoholic beverages except beer (which lives, oddly, with the soft drinks in Class 32). And Class 34 (Smokers' Articles) closes out the goods with tobacco, smoking accessories, and matches--a class that has grown complicated as vaping and related products forced new identifications.

That is all 34 goods classes. Notice the logic: raw chemicals and materials up front, machines and instruments in the middle, then a long march through textiles and foods to finished consumer indulgences at the end.

Services: Classes 35-45

The eleven service classes are newer (services were a later addition to the international scheme) and far broader per class, because a single class often covers an entire professional sector.

Class 35 (Advertising and Business) is the workhorse of the services classes and one of the most heavily filed classes overall. It covers advertising, business management and administration, office functions, and--this is the big one--retail and online store services. If you sell other people's (or your own) products through a store or e-commerce site, the retailing activity itself is a Class 35 service, distinct from the goods you sell. Every modern e-commerce brand should think hard about Class 35.

Class 36 (Insurance and Financial) covers insurance, banking, financial and monetary affairs, and real-estate services--and, in the modern era, much of fintech and crypto-finance services. Class 37 (Building Construction and Repair) holds construction, installation, and repair services. Class 38 (Telecommunications) covers the transmission of communications--telephony, broadcasting, streaming transmission, and internet-access services (note: it is the pipe, not the content). Class 39 (Transportation and Storage) covers transport, packaging and warehousing of goods, and travel arrangement. Class 40 (Treatment of Materials) is the "we do something to your stuff" class--manufacturing-for-others, custom fabrication, recycling, printing, and material processing.

Class 41 (Education and Entertainment) is sprawling and beloved: education and training, entertainment, sporting and cultural activities, publishing, and--importantly--online, non-downloadable content and many subscription content services. Class 42 (Computer and Scientific) is the other tech titan alongside Class 9: scientific and technological research, industrial design, and the design and development of computer hardware and software--including, decisively, software as a service (SaaS) and cloud platforms. The Class 9 versus Class 42 question (downloadable app versus hosted service) is the defining classification decision of the software economy; many tech companies file in both, plus Class 38 if they transmit data. (For why this matters when you are protecting an app, see protecting your mobile app.)

Class 43 (Hotels and Restaurants) covers food-and-drink services and temporary accommodation--restaurants, cafes, bars, and hotels. (Note the elegant separation: the restaurant service is Class 43, but a packaged sauce the restaurant bottles and sells is a food good in Class 29 or 30.) Class 44 (Medical, Beauty, and Agricultural) holds medical, veterinary, hygienic, and beauty-care services for people and animals, plus agriculture, horticulture, and forestry services. And finally, Class 45 (Personal and Legal) is the catchall that closes the system: legal services, security services, and personal and social services rendered to meet individuals' needs--dating services, online social networking, even funeral services. Fittingly, the very last class on the list is the one that includes the work lawyers do.

There is your map of the entire commercial world in 45 boxes. The goods march from chemicals to cigars; the services run from advertising to advocacy. Almost anything you can sell or do for hire has a home somewhere in that range--and the ID Manual will tell you exactly which one.

Design Search Codes: A Related but Different System

One source of confusion deserves a brief detour, because filers conflate it with classes. If your mark includes a design element--a logo, a symbol, a stylized picture--the USPTO assigns it one or more design search codes. These are six-digit codes (organized into categories, divisions, and sections) that classify the visual content of the mark so that examiners and searchers can find, say, every mark featuring a bird, a star, or a crown.

Design search codes are not trademark classes. Classes sort goods and services; design codes sort pictures. They serve a parallel function--making the database searchable--but along a different axis. The reason design codes matter is clearance: a great many companies use bird logos (think of the various avian marks across tech, food, and apparel), and you cannot find potential visual conflicts by searching words alone. Within the bird category, codes break down further--eagles, owls, doves, and so on each get their own code--so a searcher can zero in on logos that look like theirs. When you clear a logo mark, you search the relevant design codes in combination with the relevant classes. Our guide to brand protection online touches on the broader job of policing both word and design marks across the marketplace.

Common Classification Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Pull together everything above and a short list of recurring, expensive errors emerges. These are the ones we see most often.

Under-classifying. The most common and most dangerous mistake: claiming too few classes and leaving real product lines unprotected. The fix is to inventory everything the brand actually sells--the physical goods, the app, the website store, the services--and run each through the ID Manual. The brand that thinks it is "one class" is usually three or four.

Confusing the heading with the description. Filing a bare class heading or class number as the identification. The USPTO will refuse it. Always provide a specific, ID-Manual-based description of your actual goods or services.

Writing custom descriptions when a Manual entry exists. Post-2025, this is now a direct $200-per-class penalty for no benefit. Search the ID Manual first; write custom language only when nothing fits, and then mirror the Manual's style.

Ignoring coordinated and related classes during clearance. Searching only your own class number and missing a conflict in a coordinated class (Class 25 clothing versus Class 35 clothing retail, Class 9 software versus Class 42 SaaS). Always clear the related-goods perimeter, not just the class.

The Class 9 / Class 42 software trap. Treating "our software" as a single class when downloadable apps (Class 9) and hosted SaaS (Class 42) are different classes--and your product may be both. Decide deliberately, and file in both if both describe your offering.

Over-classifying to "cover everything." The opposite error--paying for classes you do not use, which wastes money up front, multiplies maintenance costs forever, and exposes those classes to cancellation for non-use. Claim only your genuine lanes (with a bona fide intent to use any class you have not yet entered).

Drafting too narrowly and getting trapped. Because you can never broaden an identification after filing (TMEP § 1402.06), an overly cramped description can lock you out of goods you actually sell. Aim for accurate breadth--describe your real product line fully--then prune only if the examiner objects.

Forgetting the per-class specimen. Assuming one specimen covers a multi-class application. Each class needs its own proof of use.

Relying on obsolete fee or class information. Quoting the old TEAS Plus/Standard fees, or the defunct pre-1973 U.S. class numbers. Both are gone. Confirm current fees and classes on the USPTO's own site before you file.

A clean classification strategy, in one sentence: inventory every offering, run each through the ID Manual to find its class and approved wording, clear the related and coordinated classes, claim only the lanes you truly occupy, and budget the per-class fees honestly. Do that, and the 45-box system works for you. For the broader sequence this fits into, see our trademark registration guide and the lifecycle overview in the trademark process.

Key Takeaways

  • A trademark is protected only for the goods and services you claim, sorted into the 45 classes of the Nice Classification (NCL)--Classes 1-34 for goods, 35-45 for services. This is why two companies can lawfully share an identical name in different classes (Delta faucets and Delta airlines).
  • Classification is "strictly ministerial" (TMEP § 1401.03(b)): it organizes and searches your goods but does not, by itself, define your rights. Your identification of goods and services is what actually controls scope--yet the class still drives your fees, your conflict search, and the completeness of your protection.
  • A class heading or number alone is never an acceptable identification. The USPTO requires a specific, definite description of what you actually sell--and after filing you can narrow it but never broaden it.
  • The USPTO Trademark ID Manual is your indispensable, free tool: it tells you the correct class and gives pre-approved wording. Using it is now also the cheapest path.
  • Fees are per class, at filing and at every maintenance step (Sections 8 and 9). More classes means more cost--and more potential conflicts--so claim only the lanes you genuinely occupy.
  • The 2025 fee restructuring scrapped the old TEAS tiers for a single base fee plus surcharges for incomplete applications and for custom (free-form) identifications. Pulling descriptions from the ID Manual can save $200 per class. Always verify current figures before filing.
  • Conflicts follow relatedness, not class numbers. Search coordinated and related classes during clearance--especially the Class 25/35 fashion cluster and the Class 9/42 software cluster.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many trademark classes do I need to register in? As many as your business genuinely uses--no more, no fewer. Inventory every product and service, run each through the ID Manual, and claim the classes that result. Most real businesses span more classes than they expect (a typical app company touches Classes 9, 42, and often 35 and 41). You pay a separate government fee for each class, so the count directly drives your cost.

Can two companies have the same trademark? Yes, when their goods or services are unrelated enough that consumers will not be confused about the source. That usually means different classes (Delta faucets versus Delta airlines), but the real test is likelihood of confusion, which turns on the actual relatedness of the goods, not the class number alone. Closely related goods can conflict even across different classes--because, as the USPTO puts it, classification is merely ministerial and does not define the scope of rights.

What does it cost to register a trademark in 2026? Under the structure that took effect on January 18, 2025, the USPTO charges a single base application fee per class (set at $350 per class in the final fee rule), with surcharges for incomplete applications and for using custom "free-form" identifications instead of the ID Manual (each surcharge is per class). A clean, ID-Manual-based four-class filing runs roughly $1,400 in government fees; the same filing with custom descriptions can add hundreds per class. Fees change periodically--confirm the current schedule on the USPTO website before filing, and budget for per-class maintenance fees down the road.

What is the USPTO ID Manual and do I have to use it? The Trademark ID Manual is the USPTO's free, searchable list of pre-approved descriptions of goods and services, each tagged to its class. You are not strictly required to use it--you may write a custom description--but pulling your wording from the Manual gets your application examined faster and, since 2025, avoids the per-class surcharge for free-form identifications. It is the single best tool for figuring out which class your product belongs in.

Is my downloadable app a Class 9 good or a Class 42 service? It depends on how the software is delivered. A downloadable app or program that the user installs is a Class 9 good. Non-downloadable, hosted software (software as a service, accessed in the cloud) is a Class 42 service. Many products exist in both forms, in which case companies often file in both classes (and sometimes add Class 38 for data transmission). This distinction is one of the most important classification decisions in technology branding.

Will registering in one class stop a copycat in another class? Usually not, on the strength of the registration alone--your registered rights are strongest within the goods you claimed. But you may still have recourse if the other use is likely to confuse consumers about source (relatedness, not class number, controls), and a famous mark may reach further through dilution law (Lanham Act § 43(c), 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c)). The safest course is to register in every class you actually use and to clear the coordinated and related classes before you launch.

Can I change my classes or descriptions after I file? You can always narrow your identification of goods and services--delete items, restrict the wording, or drop a whole class. You can never broaden it after the filing date (TMEP § 1402.06); broader goods would require a new application. You can also delete a problematic class or divide it into a child application so the rest can register. Plan your descriptions with that one-way door in mind.

Do international trademark classes work the same way as U.S. classes? Largely yes, because most countries use the same Nice Classification, and your U.S. filing can anchor an international registration under the Madrid Protocol using the same class numbers. But fewer than 90 countries are formal parties to the Nice Agreement, and some non-members or local practices differ (the U.S. requires far more specific identifications than many countries that accept whole class headings). Always confirm each target country's rules rather than assuming the U.S. approach applies abroad.

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This article provides general information about trademark classification and USPTO procedure and is not legal advice. Trademark fees, classification practice, and the law change over time and vary by situation; consult a qualified trademark attorney before relying on anything here. For specific guidance about your mark, contact qualified counsel.