Carrying signals and messages — telecom operators, internet providers, messaging and calling services, broadcast transmission. It is the pipe, not what flows through it.
Below: the official class heading, 6 kinds of business that file here, 4 things that get filed here by mistake and where each actually belongs, the 3 classes usually filed alongside class 38, and all 45 classes in one table.
As published in the Nice Classification, the WIPO list the Indian register is organised on.
Telecommunications services.
Transcribed from the Nice Classification (11th edition). WIPO revises these headings between editions, and a heading describes a class rather than closing the list of what falls in it — the Registry's own list of goods and services is what governs a filing.
Concrete enough to recognise yourself in, or to rule yourself out. These are our judgements, not the Registry's.
Each of these belongs in a class of its own, linked. Getting it wrong is not fatal, but it is slow and it is paid for twice.
The first cut in the whole system, and the one that decides half of all misfilings.
Classes 1 to 34 are goods — things somebody makes and somebody else owns afterwards. Classes 35 to 45 are services — things somebody does. Class 38 is on the services side, which means a registration here covers the service you perform and not the goods you sell while performing it. The moment the same name goes onto a product, a packet or a downloadable file, it needs a goods class as well.
Neighbouring numbers are not neighbouring businesses. The classification was assembled over decades and its order is historical, so class 38 sits beside class 37 and class 39 for reasons that have nothing to do with what a modern company sells. Read down the table at the foot of this page rather than around a number.
The single most expensive misunderstanding in Indian trademark filing.
A trademark registration is a right in the classes named on it. Registering in class 38 gives you nothing in the other 44: the identical name remains available to somebody else in every class you did not file, and they can register it there. This is not a loophole — it is the design. The classification exists precisely so that the same word can belong to a shoe company and to a software company at once.
Read the other way it is the reassuring half. A mark already registered in a class unrelated to yours generally cannot stop you using the name in yours, which is why a search that comes back with hits is not automatically a dead end — what matters is whether the hits are in your class and near your goods. Well-known marks are the exception the system writes for itself, and whether a mark is well known is a finding the Registry makes, not something read off a list.
The practical consequence is that the classes you file describe the business you intend to be, not only the one you are. Extending into a class later means filing later — at that day's queue, and against whatever has been registered in the meantime by somebody who read this page sooner.
General information, not legal advice. This page explains how the classification system is organised. It is not advice about your filing: which class or classes a mark belongs in depends on the goods and services you actually supply, and the specification is drafted word by word, not chosen off a list. Have a trademark attorney confirm the classes and the wording before you file. We publish no filing fees anywhere on this site — they are set by the Registry and revised from time to time, and we have no verified source for them, so take them from the Registry's own schedule.
Why each one comes up. Our judgement, from the way these businesses are actually built.
| Class | Covers | Why it comes up with class 38 |
|---|---|---|
| Class 42 | Software, IT and design services | The platform behind the transmission is class 42, and almost nothing in this space is only a pipe. |
| Class 41 | Education, entertainment and events | Programmes, courses and entertainment carried over the network are class 41. |
| Class 9 | Software, electronics and instruments | Devices, SIMs and downloadable clients are class 9 goods. |
Classes that sit in the same part of the classification as class 38.
A class is one queue. The address is another, and it is the one that goes on the packaging.
A registration in class 38 covers telecommunications on the register. It reserves no address, no handle and no listing — those are first-come queues run by people who have never heard of the Nice Classification.
A trademark class and a domain name have nothing to do with each other, and each is regularly mistaken for the other. Registering a domain creates no trademark right of any kind — the registrar sells you a rental on an address and makes no enquiry into who else uses the name. A trademark registration, equally, reserves nothing at any registry: the matching address can be bought by anyone while your application sits in the queue.
Which is why the practical order is to check both before printing anything. Across the 14 endings we price, the range runs from .xyz at ₹249 to .ai at ₹15,400. Five of them, and what each costs for a first year:
Indicative first-year prices from our own table, not a registrar quote, and not an availability answer — whether a particular name is free is a question only a live lookup can settle. Each ending has its own page with who it suits and how the check works.
Carrying signals and messages — telecom operators, internet providers, messaging and calling services, broadcast transmission. It is the pipe, not what flows through it. The Nice Classification heading for class 38 reads: Telecommunications services.
Services. Classes 1 to 34 cover goods and classes 35 to 45 cover services, and class 38 is the 4th of the 11 services classes. The distinction matters more than it looks: the thing you sell and the service you perform around it are different classes even when they carry the same name, which is why a manufacturer that also runs a shop, or a studio that also sells a product, ends up on both sides of the line.
No. A registration is a right in the classes it names and nowhere else, so a mark registered in class 38 leaves the same name available to somebody else in the remaining 44. The rule read the other way is the useful half: a mark somebody else holds in a class unrelated to yours generally cannot stop you, which is how identical names co-exist across unrelated industries. Well-known marks are the exception the system carves out for itself, and whether a mark is well known is decided by the Registry rather than by the class list.
Transmitting messages between users is class 38, the platform is class 42, and content offered as entertainment is class 41. Which of the three apply depends on what the product really does — worth an attorney's view rather than a default answer.
The transmission touches class 38; the programmes themselves are class 41. Streaming brands usually hold both, because a competitor taking the name in 41 would be using it on the thing viewers actually watch.
No, and no static page can. This file was built ahead of time and serves the same bytes to everyone, while applications and registrations move daily. The register is maintained by the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, and its public search is free to use — this page is for working out which class to search in, which is the question that has to be answered first.
The whole classification, goods first. The same table appears on every class page, so whichever one you landed on carries the full picture.
| Class | What it covers | Side |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Industrial and agricultural chemicals | Goods |
| Class 2 | Paints, dyes and printing inks | Goods |
| Class 3 | Cosmetics, toiletries and cleaning preparations | Goods |
| Class 4 | Fuels, lubricants and candles | Goods |
| Class 5 | Pharmaceuticals and medical preparations | Goods |
| Class 6 | Common metals and metal hardware | Goods |
| Class 7 | Machines and power tools | Goods |
| Class 8 | Hand tools, cutlery and razors | Goods |
| Class 9 | Software, electronics and instruments | Goods |
| Class 10 | Medical and surgical devices | Goods |
| Class 11 | Lighting, heating and sanitary apparatus | Goods |
| Class 12 | Vehicles and their parts | Goods |
| Class 13 | Firearms, explosives and fireworks | Goods |
| Class 14 | Jewellery, precious metals and watches | Goods |
| Class 15 | Musical instruments | Goods |
| Class 16 | Paper, printed matter and stationery | Goods |
| Class 17 | Rubber, plastics and insulation | Goods |
| Class 18 | Leather goods, bags and luggage | Goods |
| Class 19 | Non-metal building materials | Goods |
| Class 20 | Furniture, mirrors and non-metal containers | Goods |
| Class 21 | Kitchenware, glassware and brushes | Goods |
| Class 22 | Ropes, tents, sacks and raw fibres | Goods |
| Class 23 | Yarns and threads | Goods |
| Class 24 | Fabrics and household linen | Goods |
| Class 25 | Clothing, footwear and headwear | Goods |
| Class 26 | Lace, buttons and hair accessories | Goods |
| Class 27 | Carpets, rugs and floor coverings | Goods |
| Class 28 | Toys, games and sporting goods | Goods |
| Class 29 | Meat, dairy and processed foods | Goods |
| Class 30 | Staples, spices, bakery and beverages as goods | Goods |
| Class 31 | Fresh produce, seeds and animal feed | Goods |
| Class 32 | Beers, water and soft drinks | Goods |
| Class 33 | Wines and spirits | Goods |
| Class 34 | Tobacco, vaporisers and smokers' articles | Goods |
| Class 35 | Advertising, retail and business services | Services |
| Class 36 | Financial, insurance and property services | Services |
| Class 37 | Construction, installation and repair | Services |
| Class 38 | Telecommunications | Services |
| Class 39 | Transport, storage and travel | Services |
| Class 40 | Manufacturing to order and material treatment | Services |
| Class 41 | Education, entertainment and events | Services |
| Class 42 | Software, IT and design services | Services |
| Class 43 | Restaurants, cafés and hotels | Services |
| Class 44 | Medical, beauty and agricultural services | Services |
| Class 45 | Legal, security and personal services | Services |
One search runs the domain endings, the social handles and the marketplace listings together, so you find out the name is gone before the specification is drafted rather than after.
Check a nameMore