Naming

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Trademark classes and searching

Lesson 2 of 10 in Naming.

Trademark Classes Explained | Nice Classification · Trademark Factory
Lesson

A trademark is registered over a name for particular goods and services, never over a name in general. Those goods and services are sorted by the Nice Classification en.wikipedia.org: 45 classes, 1 to 34 for goods and 35 to 45 for services, administered by WIPO en.wikipedia.org under an agreement dating from 1957 and revised on a five-year cycle. So the same word can belong to two companies selling unrelated things. Neither is doing anything wrong.

descriptivesays what it issuggestivehints at itinventedsounds like itarbitrarymeans nothing yeteasy to explain, hard toownhard to explain, easy toowna trademark lawyer reads this line from the right
Names on a line from describing the thing to meaning nothing at all.
A person on a ladder holds a magnifying glass to a wall of small wooden drawers, two of which are open and each hold the same round leaf emblem, one on a shirt and shoe and one on a paint tin and brush.
A searcher checks a cabinet of trademark classes, where the same emblem sits in two drawers, one for clothing and one for paint. A mark is owned only for the kinds of goods it covers.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    A drinks brand registers its mark in class 32, then starts selling branded caps and running a subscription. Where does it stand on the new lines?

    • It has no protection over the caps or the subscription, because a mark is registered for particular goods and services.
    • It is covered, because registration protects the name itself wherever the company trades.
    • It is covered at home and needs a fresh filing only when it starts exporting.
    • Its class 32 registration is now vulnerable, because using the mark on other goods breaks the original filing.
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “The international scheme that sorts everything you could sell into 45 classes. Set up by the Nice Agreement of 1957 and run by WIPO.”

    • Common law rights
    • Nice Classification
    • Genericide
    • Arbitrary
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Clothing, and retail services. A clothing brand that sells other people's clothes needs both, and founders routinely file only the first.”

    • Genericide
    • Arbitrary
    • Class 25 / Class 35
    • Generic

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