Trademark Classes For Clothing Everything You Need To Know

Class 25 is the main trademarking class for clothing, headwear, and footwear. And by the way, if you're not sure what I'm talking about, what are the classes, I have a video on Nice Classes: the whole classification system, where I explain how that works. 

When you file your trademark application, you don't get a monopoly over the name by itself. You have to specify which products and services you want your trademark application to cover, and those products and services are grouped into categories that are called classes. 

So for clothing, the main class is, like I said, Class 25.

Trademark for Clothing Brands

If what you're planning to do or what you already do with your brand is more than just clothing, then you may need to file your trademark application in other classes as well. It all depends on how big you are and how wide the scope of your products is. 

If you make clothing, you will obviously need to start with Class 25. But it can also be worth it to file under other classes in addition to Class 25. Big names for example, like Louis Vuitton, have a lot of trademarks in a lot of different classes because they do so many things. 

So they've got, for example, bags, and that's class 18. They got watches and jewelry in class 14. They got sunglasses and regular glasses in class 9. They've got retail stores in class 35. They've got entertainment services in class 41.

They've got perfumes in class 3. They got cosmetics in class 5. They got candles in class 4. They got so many different things and I can go on and on and on. Really what this boils down to is if you're only going to do clothing if you're selling nothing but the clothing itself, then you're safe with just class 25.

But if you're planning to go beyond that, then you have to have a very specific list of what it is that you're planning to do. Even if you don’t have specific plans to enter a certain area, if you think it’s a possibility, it can be valuable to file a trademark in that class too.

From there, you can just expand your trademark application. Oftentimes, you will file the core application under the main class, which would usually be clothing. Then as you grow, you will be filing more trademarks. 

That's really what your trademarking strategy should be. Start with the core products and services and then keep expanding, keep expanding, keep expanding. Protecting your brand with trademarks will help it grow. Each time you file a new trademark, you’ll be helping your brand to expand anyway.

Brand Identity for Trademarks

Is there a risk that as you grow somebody would come in and get a chunk of your market for specific products and services that you hadn't trademarked before? Yes, which is why it's crucially important that you have a unique brand. 

Because if your brand is too close to somebody else's, it would be easy to apply for a Class 25 in the beginning, but it will soon become difficult to expand to other areas. 

This is why planning and trademarking your own unique brand as early as you can is crucial. 

You may be disappointed to find that you aren’t able to trademark specific things right away, but that doesn't mean you won’t be able to in the future.

As your business grows, your core business grows, hopefully, you have enough business power, monetary power to go to the other holders of the same name in the other segments of the market and just make them an offer that they can't refuse. That's how it works.

Remember that a trademark is about protecting your brand. So if you have a product or service that’s worth protecting, or think you will have one in the future, you should file for a trademark in that class, not just the one class you primarily do business in.

Get Trademark Help With Trademark Factory

I hope you found this video useful and I hope you learned something. If you did, great! 

Make sure you like and comment below and subscribe if you haven't already because we post videos like this every single day. And if you want to learn something about entrepreneurship, branding, and trademarks, that's the channel to follow. 

If you've got a brand that you want to protect, go to trademarkfactory.com and book your call with our strategy advisors and they'll help you get started. Until then, I will see you in the next video.