Goods and services
The specific products and services that a trademark is registered for — protection only extends to what is listed.
“Goods and services” is the list of specific products and services for which a trademark is registered. Trademark protection is granted only for the goods and services listed in the application, organized under the Nice Classification system: a registered mark for one product category does not automatically extend to others.
Drafting this list well is a key step of trademark strategy:
• Too narrow — the mark may not cover obvious future product launches.
• Too broad — risk of non-use cancellation actions in jurisdictions that require genuine use within a fixed period (typically three to five years).
• Vague headings — many offices, especially in the EU and the US, no longer accept class headings as a stand-in for actual goods and services; precise wording matters.
The goods and services description also determines whether two marks count as confusingly similar: identical signs in unrelated classes can usually coexist.