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  2. Intellectual Property
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  4. Nice Classification

Nice Classification

The International Classification of Goods and Services for the Purposes of the Registration of Marks (Nice Classification)  was established by an Agreement concluded at the Nice Diplomatic Conference, on June 15, 1957, was revised at Stockholm, in 1967, and at Geneva, in 1977, and was amended in 1979.

The first edition of the Nice Classification was published in 1963, the second in 1971, the third in 1981, the fourth in 1983, the fifth in 1987, the sixth in 1992, the seventh in 1996, the eighth in 2001, the ninth in 2006, the tenth in 2011 and the eleventh in 2016.  Since 2013, a new version of each edition is published annually. The current version is the 12th edition of the NCL Classification (12-2023). It entered into force on January 1, 2023.

Nice Classification is an international system used for classifying goods and services for the purposes of the registration of trademarks. Within the Nice Classification, goods and services are grouped according to different categories or classes.

Goods and services named in the List of Classes (below) are general indications by which goods and services are being classified according to the areas to which they belong in principle. In order to verify the exact classification of each individual product or service, a search of term should be carried out in the official publication of the List of Goods and Services of the International Classification of Goods and Services, available on the World Intellectual Property Organization's website (https://www.wipo.int/classifications/nice/nclpub/en/fr/) in English or French, or in the translation of this publication into Bosnian, Serbian or Croatian, available at http://tmclass.tmdn.org/ec2/. If the Class Heading from the Nice Classification is used in the list of goods and services, the scope of the trademark protection covers only goods and/or services that derive from the literal and unambiguous meaning of the term thus used.

GENERAL REFERENCES

The general references are recommendations and criteria to be applied in order to classify goods and services for trademark registration purposes in the event that the product cannot be classified according to the offered List of Classes or published List of Goods and Services of the International Classification of Goods and Services. Depending on whether they relate to goods or services, general references are given in the following two categories:

GENERAL REFERENCES RELATED TO CLASSIFICATION OF PRODUCTS

If a product cannot be classified according to the List of Classes attached here, with the help of explanations given to a particular class, then the following recommendations and criteria should be applied for their classification:

a) Finished products are generally classified according to their function or purpose. If function or purpose of the finished product is not listed in the List of Classes, the end products are classified according to comparable finished products. If this cannot be applied, the following criterion is the material from which the product was made or the manner of use;

b) Finished products that are a whole and contain multiple items that have multiple applications (e.g. built-in clock radio) can be classified in all classes corresponding to their purpose, and if these criteria cannot be applied, the criteria from item a) apply;

c) Raw materials, unprocessed or semi-processed, shall be classified in principle according to the type of material they contain;

d) Product intended to be part of another product is in principle classified in the same class as the main product, provided that the product, intended to be part of another product, cannot normally be used for other purposes. In all other cases, the criterion from item a) applies;

e) When products, finished or semi-processed, are classified according to the material from which they were made and are made of different materials, they will be classified in principle according to the material that prevails;

f) Boxes customized for products they should contain (holsters, covers), are in principle classified in the same class as those products.

GENERAL REFERENCES RELATED TO CLASSIFICATION OF SERVICES

If services cannot be classified according to the above List of Classes or by explanations with a particular class, the following recommendations and criteria should be applied:

a) Services are generally classified in the area of activities listed in the heading of a particular class related to the services as well as explanations with that class and, if not specified, are classified according to analogy with other similar services in the classification.

b) Rental services are in principle classified in the class in which the service to which the renting of object refers is located (e.g. rental of the phone in class 38). Leasing services are analogous to rental services and should therefore be classified in the same way. However, financial leasing is classified in class 36 as a financial service.

c) Services consisting in providing advice, information or consultation are in principle classified in the same classes as the services that are the subject of advice, information or consultation, such as transport consultations - Cl. 39, management consultations - Cl. 35, financial consultations - Cl. 36, consultations regarding beauty care - Cl. 44. Providing advice, information or consultation electronically (e.g. by phone, computer) has no impact on the way these services are classified.

LIST of CLASSES – CLASS HEADINGS WITH EXPLANATIONS - (pdf)

Note: When Class Heading of the Nice Classification is entered in the list of goods and services, then the scope of protection applies only to goods and/or services arising from the literal and unambiguous meaning of the terms mentioned in the Class Heading.