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Trademark class finder

Not sure which trademark class you need? Tell us what your business does, and we'll find which of the 45 Nice Classification classes you should file your trademark in. Built on the same data we use across the rest of the site, with reasoning for each recommendation.

Two or three sentences is plenty. Mention what you sell or do, who buys/uses it, and how you deliver it.

How to choose your Nice classes (the actual mental model)

The Nice Classification system divides every product and service in the world into 45 buckets. When you file a U.S. trademark application, you have to specify which of those 45 buckets your mark belongs in. That's not a formality. Your trademark is only protected in the classes you file in. File in too few, and you're vulnerable. File in too many, and you've spent money you didn't need to (each additional class is roughly $350 in USPTO fees alone).

Selling on Amazon? The class you file in has to match your products, or Amazon rejects your Brand Registry enrollment. See our Amazon Brand Registry & trademark guide for which class each product type needs and how the pending-application shortcut works.

Three rules of thumb

  1. Classes 1–34 are for goods. Classes 35–45 are for services. This is the first split. If you sell a physical product, you start in goods. If you provide a service to customers, you start in services. Both? Then you file in both.
  2. "What is it?" not "what does it do?" A pillow is Class 20 (furniture, bedding) regardless of whether it helps you sleep. A massage chair is Class 10 (medical apparatus) because of what it is, not because of how it's marketed.
  3. Software is the hard one. Downloadable software is Class 9. Software-as-a-service (delivered through a browser) is Class 42. Many SaaS companies file in both because the line moves and they want to be safe.

The classes most applicants over-pick

Two classes get over-recommended by people who don't know the system well: Class 35 (advertising and business services) and Class 9 (technology). Class 35 is for businesses whose service is advertising or business support, not for every business that does some marketing. A bakery is Class 30, not Class 35, even though the bakery has a website. Class 9 is for actual software, electronics, scientific instruments, not for every business that has an app.

The recommender above is calibrated to flag these two specifically. It'll mark them at "low confidence" if your business doesn't really fit, even if a sloppier recommender would fire them off automatically.

Common applicant mistakes

  • Filing in goods classes when you only have a service. If you don't actually sell the physical product yourself, you typically don't need a goods class. A consultancy that recommends widgets isn't a Class 9 widget company.
  • Picking a class because a competitor did. Competitor's filing might be wrong, and even if it's right for them, your business might be different enough to need a different class.
  • Filing in just one class to save money on a multi-class business. If your business genuinely operates in three classes, the right answer is to file in three. A registration that doesn't cover what you actually do is a registration with holes.

What this tool does and doesn't do

The recommender is grounded in the full Nice Classification reference and calibrated against the patterns we see in actual U.S. filings. It's a starting point, not legal advice. For high-stakes filings (large companies, contested marks, trademark portfolios over $50K in expected value) you should still consult a trademark attorney to confirm class selection and walk through goods/services language.

For everyone else (solo founders, small businesses, anyone filing pro se) it's a much better starting point than guessing from a 45-row table or trusting whatever the first Google result tells you.

Worked example

"A subscription-based language learning app for kids age 6-12, with a paid tier for parents to track progress."

  • Class 41 (education and training): high confidence. The product's primary purpose is education.
  • Class 9 (downloadable software): medium confidence. If the app is a downloadable mobile app, yes; if it's web-only, lean toward 42 instead.
  • Class 42 (SaaS): medium-high confidence. The subscription parent dashboard is a SaaS service.
  • Class 35 (advertising): low confidence and probably wrong. The business doesn't advertise on behalf of others.

Once you've got your classes, you'll want to make sure your proposed mark name is actually clear of conflicts in those classes. Use our risk assessment for that.