Trademarks 101 · Identifying your goods/services
Your registration covers only what you include in it.
The description of your goods or services (called the identification) sets the edges of your rights. It has to be specific, it has to be accurate, and you can’t expand the scope of it, since only narrowing is allowed.
If you read nothing else
- What it is
- The list of what you sell under the mark, in words the Trademark Office accepts. This decides your classes, your fees, and what your registration actually covers and protects.
- Narrow, never broaden
- After filing, you can clarify or narrow the list but you can never add to it. That means getting it right the first time matters.
- The ID Manual
- The Trademark Office keeps a list of pre-approved wording. Using it avoids most of these objections; custom wording is allowed but checked more closely and costs more to file.
- Truth matters
- For a use-based filing, you must be using everything listed in the registration. Listing goods you don’t sell can put your entire registration at risk.
Common problems
Too vague
This just means that the examiner can’t tell what the goods are.
- “Clothing” instead of “shirts, hats and jackets”
- “Software” without saying what it does
- “Services” without saying which
Wrong class or too broad
This means that the wording doesn’t match the classes or fees paid.
- Goods that actually live in more classes than you paid for
- A list wider than what you actually sell
- Goods and services mixed up into one class
How we’ll handle it
Before filing
We draft the list from what you actually sell, using the ID Manual wording, wherever we can.
If the examiner objects
We propose amended wording, inside the scope of what you filed. We call this an administrative response.
If a conflict hinges on it
Narrowing the list can sometimes move you away from an earlier mark’s scope of protection.
Read next
Or see every Trademarks 101 sheet.
This sheet is general information, not legal advice for your situation. Talk to us about yours.