Goods are products your customers purchase from you, such as bicycles or candles. Services are activities performed for the benefit of someone other than you or your company, such as bicycle repair services or catering. You may list both goods and services in your application.
Identifying your goods and services
If your application is based on “use in commerce,” you must be using the trademark in commerce for all the goods and services listed in your application. If your application is based on a “bona fide intent to use the mark,” you must have a good faith or bona fide intent to use the trademark on all the goods and services listed.
During the examination process, we will compare your descriptions to other trademark applications and registrations to determine whether there is a conflicting trademark. Therefore, use identifications that are clear, concise terms that the general public would easily understand and that accurately and completely describe your goods or services. Using vague terms that don’t identify recognizable goods or services, such as “miscellaneous services,” in your application may lead to rejection of your application.
For example, you might use your trademark as a brand for black short-sleeved t-shirts. You do not need to identify your goods as “black short-sleeved t-shirts.” Instead, you could list them as “t-shirts,” “shirts,” or even “tops as clothing.” All three of these options are accurate and acceptable.
You can search for pre-approved descriptions of goods or services and their classification in our ID Manual or you can draft your own descriptions.
Trademark classes
Trademark classes are a way for us to organize the goods or services used in applications, assess fees, and aid in searching our database of registered and pending trademarks. All goods and services are “classified” or organized into broad categories of goods or services, as determined by international agreement. Each category of goods or services is assigned a number from 1 to 45, also known as an international class. There are many items listed in each class; however, goods and services are never in the same class.
Although TEAS Plus requires you to pay all of your filing fees upfront, the form automatically selects the correct classification of your identified goods or services. Your application filing fee is based on the total number of international classes in your application. If you can’t find an ID Manual entry appropriate for your goods or services, don’t use the TEAS Plus form; use the TEAS Standard form instead.
For example, you might have a clothing line of golf shirts, dress shirts, and t-shirts. These shirts all fall under the same international class, so your TEAS Plus filing fee would be $250 for the one class. However, if you also provide custom t-shirt printing services, you would have goods and services in two different international classes. In that case, your TEAS Plus filing fee would be $500 ($250 plus $250).
