Selecting the goods and services

The list of goods and services define the scope of your legal protection. Your trademark rights exist with respect to those goods and services that are covered by the application. Remember, once the application is filed, it is not possible to add new products or services.

In our experience, the biggest single mistake companies make with their list is that they make it too narrow.

In our templates, we generally use the widest possible terms accepted by EU trademark office (e.g. “software” rather than “downloadable software application for processing videos and images”). When you use our template, it is possible that your exact product is not mentioned but rather the whole more general category (e.g. for food products our list does not include “salami” or “kielbasa”, but more general term “meat and meat products” that include also salami and kielbasa products).

When you choose the products and services for your application, you can use the following approach:

1. Identify your main products and services. These should always be included in your trademark.
2. Think of possible other products and services you are likely to offer in the future. E.g. a clothing brand may logically start selling also bags and other accessories. A wine brand may sell wine glasses or bottle openers with the brand.
3. If you’re a product company, think of relevant services and vice-versa. A wine producer (vineyard) will likely offer (now or in future) wine tasting events and B&B services. A ski resort may have clothing and hats.
4. If you are a software company and your software is used for a particular purpose or industry, protect your trademark also with respect to the service your software performs. For example, a mobile application for banking is essentially a banking service, not a software product or service (but protect it also for software).

The wider the list, the broader the protection of your brand. If you go broad, it also means that as you expand to new products or services, your old trademark might already cover them and there is no need to file a new application. This will save you money. The downside is that the more trademark classes you add to your application, the higher the cost (but still much lower than having to make a new application later). Also, the broader the list, the bigger the likelihood that there will be similar trademarks already registered.

EUIPO fee
1 class: 850 EUR
2 classes 900 EUR
Every additional class thereafter 150 EUR.