What Is a Trademark Class?

This is the question you’re going to eventually ask when you go down the path of getting or protecting your trademark: “What’s a Class and how does it affect you?” Because the Class or Classes that your trademark, where it belongs in, is going to affect your ability to get a registered trademark, your ability to protect your mark, and it’s also going to affect the cost of registering and protecting your mark. 

So, the Class System is kind of complicated, but the example that I’ve found that simplifies it and makes it understandable to most people — is to reach way back in time when we used to have this thing called “The Yellow Pages” — And in fact for this video, I went out and I ordered a Yellow Pages from New Jersey, and I looked up some of the Classes for the Yellow Pages that apply to a couple of business (hypothetical businesses) One being a heating and air conditioning servicing company — The other being a pet store.

And I pulled Classes within the Yellow Page System and applied it to these businesses. Again, this is not the Trademark Classification System, but the “analogy” holds. So, I want you to think about that. Within the heating and air conditioning “hypothetical business” categories, I actually found several ways I could have listed this business within these Yellow Pages. As Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Business, Boilers and Servicing and Sales, Central Heating and Air Conditioning Services and Sales, Heating Appliances — and there are actually others under that category immediately that followed on — Heating Consultants, Heating Contractors, Heating Sales and Service and Plumbing. 

Within the Pet Category, we also found a number of areas that you could register your market. So, for example, for the Yellow Pages, you could have your pet store listed under Boarding Services, Clipping and Grooming, Pet Supplies, Vet Clinic and Services as well as Vet Surgeons. 

So, if you click on the link below, you’ll see where I go through. And I literally will make images of each of these sections and — to just show you how they apply. Again, this is for Yellow Pages to categories of a heating and air conditioning business as well as a pet store.