Choosing NICE classes

Classes decide what your search actually covers. Getting them wrong is the most common reason a search looks reassuringly empty when it should not.

Why they matter

A trademark protects a sign only for the goods and services it is registered for. Two identical names in unrelated classes usually coexist without a problem; two similar names in the same class usually do not. So the classes you pick define which conflicts you will see.

There are 45 classes: 1–34 for goods, 35–45 for services.

Three ways to choose

Browse classes

The full 45-class grid. Use this when you already know your numbers — for instance because you have filed before, or your attorney gave them to you. Select all and Reset are there for quick adjustments.

Help me choose

Demarka’s class helper. It walks through three short steps:

1. What do you offer? — describe your business in your own words.
2. Choose categories — pick the categories that fit.
3. Clarifications — a few follow-up questions to disambiguate.

Then Detect classes returns a proposal split into core activities and related activities, each with a plain-language explanation of why it was suggested. You can accept, edit or ignore the result — nothing is locked in.

The guided wizard

A longer, six-step flow that handles name, countries, business nature, category, clarifications and classes in one pass. It asks branch-specific questions — whether you manufacture or resell, whether you provide a service directly or run a platform, how customers access a digital product — and returns primary and adjacent classes, each with a confidence percentage and its own toggle.

Use the wizard the first time you file for a business; use the class helper afterwards.

How many classes to pick

More classes mean broader protection, more official fees, and more potential conflicts. Official fees are typically charged per class, so the cost grows with each one.

A workable rule:

• Cover what you sell today and what you will plausibly sell within a year or two.
• Include the retail or distribution class if you sell your own goods through your own shop or site.
• Do not sweep in whole industries “just in case” — you will surface conflicts that would never actually affect you, and you can be challenged for non-use later.

Class numbers people often miss

• Class 35 — retail, e-commerce, advertising and business services. Almost every consumer brand with a shop needs it.
• Class 42 — software development and SaaS, distinct from class 9 (downloadable software).
• Class 41 — education, training, online courses and entertainment content.

If your product spans goods and their online sale, you will usually need at least two classes.

For an assessment

The assessment wizard uses the same helper, plus a short business description in your own words. That description is read by the analysis: it sharpens both the absolute-grounds check — whether the name is descriptive of your goods — and the judgement of how closely earlier marks overlap with what you actually do. It is worth a careful sentence or two.