The History of the NICE Classification & the 45 Trademark Classes

The 45 trademark classes come from the NICE Classification, the WIPO list used by Nepal's Department of Industry. Goods sit in Classes 1 to 34, services in Classes 35 to 45. The structure is newer than people assume: it began in 2002.

Key takeaways

• The Nice Agreement was concluded in 1957 and in force from 1961.
• The list had only 42 classes until the eighth edition took effect on 1 January 2002.
• Legal services only reached Class 45 in 2007, with the ninth edition.
• WIPO now republishes the list every year: the current text is version 2026.
• Nepal is not a party to the Nice Agreement — 96 States are, and India is the only South Asian member.
• Nepal classifies under Sec. 18A, a domestic power exercised by notice in the Nepal Gazette.
• Sec. 18A(2) requires a separate application for every class, which drives filing cost.

What are the 45 trademark classes?

They are 45 buckets describing what a mark is used on, not what it looks like. Every office using them speaks the same 45 words.

Classes 1 to 34 hold goods. Classes 35 to 45 hold services, what a business does for someone else.

A class does not decide whether your mark is registrable. It sets the territory of the claim, a different question the examiner asks second.

When did the 45 classes actually begin?

On 1 January 2002, with the eighth edition. We checked WIPO's archive of past editions: the seventh edition of 1997 stops at Class 42.

So the "45 classes" every guide treats as timeless are nearly four decades younger than the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965.

The classification is older: the Nice Agreement was concluded in 1957 and entered into force in 1961, when offices first shared a list.

What did the list look like before 2002?

Class 42 carried everything the drafters could not place. Its heading ended "services that cannot be classified in other classes", an odd line for a classification.

That one class held restaurants, hotels, medical and beauty care, veterinary services, legal work, scientific research and computer programming.

The eighth edition split it: Class 43 took food, drink and accommodation, Class 44 medical, beauty and veterinary care, Class 45 personal and security services.

Which services moved, and when?

Legal services are the one people get wrong. They did not move in 2002: the eighth-edition Class 42 heading still ended "legal services".

They moved with the ninth edition, in force 1 January 2007, when Class 45 was rewritten to begin with legal services and Class 42 became purely scientific.

That gap matters for old certificates. A mark filed for legal work in 2004 went into Class 42 correctly, and the list has moved since.

Why does the list change every year now?

Because commerce does. WIPO's archive shows revisions in 1963, 1971, 1981, 1983, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007 and 2012, then one every year from 2013.

The current text is the 13th edition, version 2026, and 2027 is published already. Downloadable software, electronic cigarettes and edible insects arrived that way.

One consequence: a specification copied from an old certificate may use wording the current list has retired. Draft from today's list.

Who decides what goes in it?

A Committee of Experts from the member States. Administration passed to WIPO in 1967, and it publishes each edition with headings, explanatory notes and an alphabetical list of goods.

The explanatory notes do the real work: they say what a class includes and, more usefully, what it excludes and where that item goes.

You can read the current edition free on the WIPO site, and our guide to WIPO and Nepal's membership explains the institution behind it.

Is Nepal a party to the Nice Agreement?

No. WIPO's depositary table for the Agreement, current to 11 May 2026 when we read it, lists 96 States. Nepal is not among them.

Nor are Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives or Afghanistan. India is the only South Asian member, joining as recently as 7 September 2019.

Contrast copyright, where the whole region is inside the Berne Union. On classification, South Asia mostly uses the list without signing for it.

If Nepal never joined, why does the DoI use the list?

Because Sec. 18A(1) of the Patent, Design and Trade Mark Act 1965 gives the Government of Nepal its own power to classify goods and services, by notification in the Nepal Gazette.

We searched the English text published by the Nepal Law Commission. The word "Nice" appears zero times, and "classification" once, in the heading of Sec. 18A.

So the 45 classes reach Nepal through a domestic instrument and office practice. The Department of Industry uses them because the register works that way, not because a treaty compels it.

What does Sec. 18A require of an applicant?

Sec. 18A(2) is short and expensive: a separate application is needed for goods or services placed in different categories.

One brand across three classes is three applications and three certificates. That is the biggest driver of what a Nepali portfolio costs.

Sec. 18A(3) lets a mark registered in one category be registered in another if it falls there, so you can extend later rather than file everything at once.

What are the 45 classes?

Headings below are condensed from WIPO's current edition. Read the full heading and note before settling a specification.

For how the system works in practice, read our guide to the NICE Classification.

How are goods and services split in Nepal's own register?

Very unevenly. Across the first 122 Bulletin issues we indexed, 59,388 published entries sit in goods classes and 12,143 in services.

All 45 are used. Class 30, covering tea, spices and bakery goods, is busiest with 10,728; Class 13 is quietest with 16.

These are IP Sewa figures from published bulletin entries, not official statistics, and show no current registration status.

How do you pick your classes?

Start from your business, not the numbers. The list is a translation layer that only works on plain descriptions.

1. Write down what you sell. One line per product and per service, in plain words.
2. Add what launches within a year. A class you need soon is cheaper now than later.
3. Match each line to a class. The NICE class finder is a starting point, and the AI classifier handles awkward wording.
4. Read the exclusions. WIPO's note usually names the neighbour that catches the item.
5. See how crowded it is. Browse marks published by class before committing to a name.
6. Check the goods wording, not the number. Use goods and services search for marks claiming what you claim.
7. File one application per class. Sec. 18A(2) leaves no alternative.

Which class boundary catches Nepali businesses most?

The retail one. Class 35 covers advertising, business management and retail services, and is routinely treated as a general business class. It is not.

A shop selling its own branded goods needs the product class too. A café is Class 43, while its packaged chiya sits in Class 30.

Our guide to goods against services in Nepal works through the split, and getting the class right covers the borderline cases.

What happens after you choose the class?

The Department examines the application filed under Sec. 17 against the grounds in Sec. 18, publishes an accepted mark in the Industrial Property Bulletin, and issues a registration certificate. An unopposed filing commonly runs about 12–14 months end to end, and 6–8 months in the smoothest cases.

The opposition period is 90 days from publication, and the deadline the Department states prevails. Nepal is first-to-file, so the filing date does the heavy lifting.

A registration runs seven years, and the renewal term under Sec. 23B repeats indefinitely for a mark. Sec. 18B forbids presenting a mark as registered before it is, and Sec. 21B says a mark registered abroad has no force here unless registered in Nepal. Foreign applicants file through a local agent under a power of attorney.

Does a change in Geneva change your Nepali registration?

Not by itself. Your certificate records the class and goods wording accepted then, and a later WIPO edition does not rewrite it.

A change affects your next filing and any argument about scope. If your wording has been retired, expect the examiner to ask for current language.

Before extending a brand into a new class, search first with IP Sewa's trademark search and read what similar owners claimed.

Common mistakes

• Treating Class 35 as a catch-all. The real one disappeared in 2002.
• Copying a foreign specification. It may list goods you do not sell and miss ones you do.
• Filing one class and assuming coverage. Sec. 18A(2) makes every class its own application.
• Quoting a class number from an old certificate. Its contents may have moved.
• Choosing a class before searching. A crowded class changes which name is worth having.
• Reading a heading as the whole class. The explanatory note settles edge cases.

A worked example

This is an illustration, not a real case. A Lalitpur roaster sells packaged coffee, runs a café and licenses its recipe to hotels under one name.

The packaged coffee is Class 30. The café is Class 43. The licence is a contract, not a class, and protects nothing on its own.

Under Sec. 18A(2) that is two applications, filed the same day. Class 35 enters only if the business genuinely runs retail services for others.

If it later bottles a cold coffee drink, the boundary moves again: a coffee-based beverage stays in Class 30 rather than joining soft drinks in Class 32.

What can a class number not tell you?

Whether the mark is distinctive, free, and in use. Those come from Sec. 18, from a search and from the register.

Two marks in one class can be far apart commercially, and two in different classes can collide head-on. Read the goods wording in the entry.

For a considered view before filing, our trademark search and clearance service weighs class, wording and similarity together.

In short

The 45 trademark classes are a WIPO product Nepal uses without signing for it, under the domestic power in Sec. 18A and a list re-published every year.

They are younger than they look: 42 classes until 2002, 45 since, and legal services only settling into Class 45 in 2007.

For your filing the history matters less than the arithmetic: one class, one application, and the goods wording decides what you own.

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Pick the classes that match what you sell, then move, because the filing date decides priority here. We can map your range to classes and file through trademark registration — send your product list via contact.