Trademark Classes, Explained in Plain English

Every trademark application declares the goods or services it covers, sorted into 45 international ("Nice") classes — 34 for goods, 11 for services. Classes are why two identical names can both be fine: DELTA for faucets and DELTA for air travel don't confuse anyone about who sold them what.

The classes small brands actually meet

Class 25 — clothing, footwear, headgear (most apparel brands). Class 35 — retail-store and online-store services, advertising (this is the "I run a shop" class, distinct from the goods you sell). Class 9 — software you download, electronics. Class 42 — software as a service, design, development. Class 14 — jewelry. Class 16 — paper goods, stickers, prints. Class 20 — furniture. Class 21 — mugs and housewares. Class 30 — coffee, baked goods. Class 3 — cosmetics, candles (candles are actually class 4 — the classification has traps exactly like this, which is why applications list specific goods, not just numbers).

Why classes matter for monitoring

A new filing identical to your name in an unrelated class is usually a curiosity, not a crisis — while a merely similar name in your class can be the real problem. MarkAlarm scores both, but weights class overlap heavily: same-class collisions can reach high-priority alerts, different-class ones stay low-priority notes. When you add a watched mark you can specify classes (an apparel brand might watch 25 and 35) or leave it open to watch all 45.

The USPTO's own ID Manual lists acceptable goods/services wording per class if you want the authoritative source: it's public, like everything else in this system.