Trademark Classes
Trademark Classes of Goods and Services in India
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
The Nice Classification splits every trademark application into 45 classes, and the split is not arbitrary. Classes 1 to 34 are goods. Classes 35 to 45 are services. Which side of that line your business sits on decides everything that follows.
If you want the full list, see all 45 trademark classes in India. This page is about the question that comes before the list: are you filing for goods, for services, or for both?
Goods are things. Services are things you do for someone else.
A good is a physical article that changes hands. Chemicals, paints, cosmetics, fuel, medicines, metals, machinery, tools, electronics, jewellery, paper, leather, furniture, kitchenware, textiles, clothing, carpets, toys, food, drinks and tobacco all fall somewhere in classes 1 to 34.
A service is work performed for the benefit of someone else. Advertising, banking, construction, telecommunications, transport, education, software development, restaurants, medical care and legal work fall in classes 35 to 45.
The test that works in practice: after the transaction, is the customer holding an object that carries your brand? If yes, you are dealing in goods. If what they received was your effort, expertise or access, you are dealing in services.
Your industry does not decide this. Your role in it does.
Two businesses in the same sector routinely file in different classes because they do different things.
A company that manufactures furniture files in Class 20. An interior designer who specifies and arranges that furniture files in Class 42. A shop that sells several furniture brands files in Class 35. Same industry, three different classes, because the role is different in each case.
The same pattern holds in food, in software, in textiles and in almost every sector. This is why copying the class that a well-known competitor filed in is unreliable advice: they may occupy a different position in the chain than you do.
Businesses that are genuinely both
Plenty of businesses sit on both sides, and there is nothing unusual about that.
A bakery that also runs a cafe is selling goods in Class 30 and providing a service in Class 43. A cosmetics brand with its own salons is in Class 3 and Class 44. A publisher that runs training courses is in Class 16 and Class 41.
In each case, filing on only one side leaves the other genuinely exposed. A rival can register your name for the half you did not claim, and the fact that you were first in the other half does not automatically stop them.
The retail exception that confuses everyone
Class 35 covers retail and wholesale services — the act of bringing goods together so that customers can choose and buy them. It is a service class even though everything being sold is a good.
This catches out a lot of brand owners. If you manufacture your own product and sell it, Class 35 protects the shop but not the product. If you only stock other people's brands, Class 35 is correct and a goods class would be wrong, because you are not the source of those goods.
The distinction is about whose brand goes on the item, not about whether items are involved.
Why this matters more than it looks
Examination is carried out class by class and against the specific description you filed. Protection does not spill over into a class you did not apply for, and it does not extend to activities you did not describe.
Each class is also examined on its own facts. A mark can be accepted in one class and objected to in another, because the marks already on the register differ from class to class. That is why the answer to "is this name available" is always class-specific.
Working out your own classes
Start by listing what you actually sell, in plain words, as specifically as you can. Not "we are in fashion" but "stitched garments, leather bags, and a store selling other labels" — which is three classes, not one.
Then check each item individually in the trademark class finder rather than reasoning from the class headings, because examination works on specific descriptions rather than headings.
If your business is service-led, the guide to trademark classes for service businesses covers the eleven service classes and the exclusions that trip people up most often.