Glossary
French: classification de Nice
The Nice Classification is the classification system in force for the goods and services of trademarks — the same system US practitioners use before the USPTO. It contains 45 classes: goods in classes 1 to 34, services in classes 35 to 45. It is regularly updated, with new terms added over time.
Search. The classification’s purpose is to make prior-rights searches possible: it structures how earlier marks are located. See trademark clearance search.
Fees. The classification determines the cost of a French filing: the INPI charges an official fee of €190 for one class and €40 for each additional class. Even though classification has no legal effect as such once the mark is registered, it directly affects what a mark costs.
Irregularity notices. When the INPI considers that certain goods or services are filed in the wrong class, it sends the applicant an irregularity notice (comparable to a USPTO office action on classification) requesting that the items be moved to the proper class. If that class is not already covered by the filing, an additional class fee becomes due.
The stakes of classification are predictability and better searching of prior rights — and, for the INPI, the collection of additional fees. The notion of class is therefore essential even though it carries no legal effect on the scope of protection.
See also: goods and services, trademark fees and costs.