Nice Classes: Choosing the Right Scope for a Turkish Trademark

A trademark is never registered “for everything”. Protection is limited to the goods and services you designate under the Nice Classification: classes 1-34 for goods, 35-45 for services, 45 in total. A poorly drafted specification can leave you exposed even with a certificate in hand.

What the class system means in practice

The same word can be registered by different owners in different classes. Whether an earlier mark actually blocks you depends on the overlap of goods and services, not only on the similarity of the signs. That said, class numbers are not a wall: similarity is assessed by purpose, distribution channels, target public and complementarity, and marks with a reputation can reach beyond their own classes.

Class headings do not cover everything in the class

Selecting a class heading does not automatically capture every item in that class. The scope of protection is read from what the specification actually names, so the list should expressly cover what you sell today and what you plan to sell.

The class 35 trap: selling goods vs providing retail services

This is where the most expensive mistakes happen. If you manufacture and sell your own products, protection belongs in the goods class — 25 for apparel, 3 for cosmetics. If you bring together third-party products and offer them in a store or online marketplace, that is a service, protected under the retail-services group of class 35.

Most e-commerce brands do both, and therefore need both: the relevant goods classes and the retail group of class 35. A brand that registered only class 35 may find it cannot stop a competitor using the same name on the products themselves.

How wide should the list be?

Breadth has two costs. The direct one is the official fee per additional class. The delayed and more serious one is that goods and services not put to genuine use within five years of registration become vulnerable to cancellation (Article 9). Items added “just in case” end up both unprotected and useful ammunition for the other side.

A workable rule: include everything you use today, include what you have a concrete plan to launch within roughly three years, and leave “maybe one day” for a later application.

We build the specification around your business model — see our clearance and filing strategy service or the full registration guide.

This article is general information and not legal advice. The Nice Classification is updated periodically; always work from the current edition.