Choosing Nice Classes: The Right Class for Your Brand

Choosing Nice classes means mapping your goods and services to the right ones out of 45 classes, and that choice decides what your brand actually covers in the end. Classes 1 to 34 are for goods, classes 35 to 45 for services, according to DPMA (2026). The main thing to know up front: the office does not choose for you. You name your own list, and the scope of your brand reaches only as far as the classes and terms you file. Choose too narrowly and you leave gaps. Choose too broadly and you pay more and make the brand vulnerable. This guide shows you how to find the right class. It is general orientation, not legal advice.

Key Takeaways

• There are 45 Nice classes: 1 to 34 for goods, 35 to 45 for services (DPMA, 2026).
• You choose the classes yourself; the office does not add to your list.
• Filing with the DPMA costs 290 euros for up to three classes, plus 100 euros for each further class (DPMA, 2026).
• Protection covers identical and similar goods, even across class lines (§ 14 MarkenG).
• The same class does not make two goods automatically similar, and a different class does not make them automatically dissimilar.

Before you commit to any classes, it pays to look at similar trademarks already registered in exactly those classes. You can search for similar trademarks at any time before you file.

What are Nice classes, and why do you have to choose them?

Nice classes are the international system that sorts every conceivable good and service into 45 groups. The system goes back to the Nice Agreement and is updated regularly, according to WIPO (2026). The current version is the 13th edition, NCL (13-2026), in force since 1 January 2026. Classes 1 to 34 cover goods, classes 35 to 45 cover services.

Here is why you have to choose at all: a trademark never protects "everything," only specific goods and services. This is called the principle of speciality. According to DPMA (2026), trademarks are registered for specific goods and services, and that is what defines their scope of protection. Your choice of classes is therefore not a formality but the decision about what your brand actually works against later on.

The class is not a label for your industry, it is the boundary of your protection. What is not listed is not protected.

That is exactly why the choice of classes is the step where most applications end up weaker than they need to be. Take only the one "obvious" class and you often miss the service you actually earn money with.

Which class fits your offering?

The right class follows from what you concretely offer, not from your industry in broad strokes. Ask yourself first: am I selling a physical product, a service, or both? Goods sit in classes 1 to 34, services in 35 to 45. Many founders need something from both areas.

Three typical examples show the pattern:

• Online clothing shop: The goods, clothing, fall into class 25. Running the shop, meaning the retail service, is a service and sits in class 35. Filing only class 25 leaves the retail side unprotected.
• SaaS product: The software itself touches class 9, providing it as software as a service falls into class 42, and if you also run advertising or a marketplace on top, class 35 comes into play. Which classes are typical for software is covered in the guide Nice classes for SaaS.
• Consulting or agency: Here it is usually purely about services, such as business consulting in class 35 or technical services in class 42, with no goods class at all.

One pattern helps with every assignment: draw a clean line between what you make or sell (goods) and what you do for others (services). Which trademark form you choose for that is a separate question, explained in the guide on word marks versus figurative marks.

How many classes do you really need?

As many as your actual business covers, and no more. The number of classes decides two things at once: your cost and your risk. At the DPMA, filing costs 290 euros for electronic submission covering up to three classes, plus 100 euros for each further class from the fourth onward, according to DPMA (2026). On paper, the basic fee is 300 euros.

For an EU-wide application, the tiering is different. According to the EUIPO fee overview (2026), the basic fee of 850 euros covers only one class, the second costs 50 euros, and each further class from the third onward costs 150 euros. The comparison is worth doing, because if you are thinking in three classes, that is one basic fee at the DPMA but noticeably more at the EUIPO. What an application costs in total, and where a preliminary search fits in, is covered under cost of a trademark search.

More important than the raw price is the balance. Chosen too narrowly, the class where you actually earn stays unprotected. Chosen too broadly, it is not only expensive but risky: for goods and services you are not seriously using after five years, your brand can become vulnerable. The rule of thumb is therefore to phrase it as narrow as necessary and as broad as makes sense, anchored to the real business of the next few years.

Why does the class alone not protect you?

Because the class is an organizing grid, not a boundary of protection. Your trademark protects you against the use of identical or similar signs for identical or similar goods and services, under § 14 MarkenG (Trademark Act). The decisive word is "similar." Protection does not stop at the class line.

This is even spelled out in the law. Under § 14 MarkenG, goods and services are not considered similar merely because they appear in the same Nice class. The reverse holds just as well: a different class does not make them automatically dissimilar. Whether a likelihood of confusion exists depends on the actual closeness of the products and the similarity of the signs, not on the number in the register.

For you this means two things. First: an earlier trademark in a neighboring class can stand in the way of your application, even if the classes differ. Second: your own search should look not only at the exact classes you chose but also at the ones related in substance. That is why it makes sense to compare similar trademarks before filing, rather than relying on identity within a single class.

How do you find the right terms for your classes?

Through the official classification databases, not through freely invented wording. The DPMA provides the unified classification database, or eKDB, for this. It contains around 73,000 accepted terms for goods and services in 23 languages, according to DPMA (2026). Use only terms from this database and you avoid formal objections during filing.

For the EU there is the counterpart, TMclass, which is based on the EUIPO harmonized database. Both tools show you which class a term belongs to and how it is officially phrased. That takes the assignment off your hands: you search for your product, and the tool shows you the class for it.

One point stays your job, though. According to DPMA (2026), you have to name your list of goods and services concretely; a bare class number is not enough. The more precisely you phrase it, the clearer it is later how far your protection reaches. A precise list is therefore not bureaucratic busywork but your best safeguard in a dispute. How the classes are built up in detail is covered in the overview of all 45 Nice classes.

Conclusion: Order your offering first, then choose the classes

The most important insight first: your choice of classes is the decision about the scope of your brand, not a form field. There are 45 classes, 1 to 34 for goods and 35 to 45 for services, and you choose yourself which ones map your business (DPMA, 2026). Too narrow leaves gaps, too broad gets costly and, after five years, vulnerable. Always remember that protection under § 14 MarkenG also applies to similar goods, across class lines, and that the same class alone does not establish similarity. For the terms, use the official eKDB and name your list concretely. All of this is general orientation, not legal advice; when in doubt, have your case reviewed by a lawyer. The first practical step remains: search for similar trademarks in your classes before you file.