Nice Classification (trade marks)

The Nice Classification is a system of classifying goods and services for European Union (EU) trade mark applications. It consists of 45 classes.

The Nice Classification assigns goods to Classes 1 to 34, and services to Classes 35 to 45. Each class is represented by a class heading, which gives general information about the type of goods or services covered. For example, the Class 25 heading reads 'Clothing; footwear; headgear' and the Class 15 heading 'Musical instruments'.

Each class contains a set of terms within that class to better define the goods or services to be protected by the EU trade mark application. When indicating the goods and services in an EU trade mark application, applicants are strongly advised to use the Nice Classification terms in order to avoid delays in the registration procedure caused otherwise by the need to translate the terms submitted. Use of these generic terms will also improve the search capabilities of the EU trade mark databases and thus ultimately result in greater transparency.

The Nice Classification can be searched using TMclass, an interactive search tool that is available in all the official EU languages, as well as in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Turkish.

It is worth noting that the original list of goods and services included in an EU trade mark application can only be limited, not extended. In other words, you may not add any goods, services or classes to the application as originally filed.

At the time of filing, you can indicate any number of classes, but only one class is covered by the application fee (850€). If you choose more, a fee is payable for each additional one.