In general, the rights you have in any trademark are limited to the class of goods and/or services with which the mark is used in commerce. That is, while one person or company may own a particular mark for easy chairs and television sets, another person or company may, at the same time, own rights in the identical mark for hockey sticks and travel services.

        Recently,the Trademark Office has been asserting that rights in marks are further limited to their connection with particular kinds of goods or services within each class. So that one person or company may hold rights in a mark in "International Class 9" (a broad category covering a wide range of "scientific" goods) for certain computer software products at the same time that another person or company holds rights in the identical mark in the same class (9) of goods for sonar-based marine depth finders. The distinguishing mechanism preventing a "likelihood of confusion" between such marks is taken to be the separation between their respective "channels of trade."

Trademark versus Service Mark

        In placing marks into the various classifications, the law and regulations make an initial distinction between marks used with goods and those used with services. Strictly speaking, a trademark is a mark affixed to goods that are sold in commerce ...

trademark The Gibson® trademark is inlaid into the heads of guitars made and sold by Gibson Musical Instruments.

... and a service mark is a mark that is used in connection with services that are sold in commerce ...

service mark The famous CBS® eye identifying television broadcasting services appears in broadcast images, tv listings, and promotional literature.

        Certain marks may be both trademarks and service marks if they are used with both goods and services. A trademark may be "affixed" to goods by being imprinted on them, by being attached to them -- for instance, on labels or tags -- or by being imprinted on the packaging in which the goods are sold. (Sometimes the packaging itself may be or become a trademark.) A service mark is used "in connection with" the services it identifies, usually by appearing in informational and instructional literature and in advertising, but it may also appear in other forms, such as on uniforms worn by providers of the services, or on vehicles used to deliver the services.

        For instance, Federal Express prints its FedEx^® trademark on its envelopes and various shipping containers. The FedEx^® service mark on its trucks identifies the delivery services provided using the vehicles that carry the packages. (Federal Express doesn't make and sell FedEx brand trucks.)

        Although there is no difference in the rights granted to owners of trademarks versus service marks, the type-distinction is made in the application for registration and is carried through all records of the mark to the registration, itself. In providing public notice of use as a trademark or service mark, unregistered marks should carry the ™ symbol when they are used as trademarks and the ^SM symbol when used as service marks. All U.S. registered marks carry the ® symbol.

Classification of Goods and Services

        In addition to the broad distinction made between trademarks and service marks, these marks are further categorized into one or more of a number of "classes" of goods and services, according to the kind of goods or type of services with which the marks are used. Since 1973, the United States, joining most other nations, has used the "International schedule of classifications of goods and services." Along with the international classes, however, many countries have -- and some continue to maintain, internally -- their own system of trademark classification. The U.S., for example, continues to include in trademark records references to the U.S. schedule of classes used prior to 1973, but only as an aid to searching trademark records; the officially recognized classes are the international classes.

        The international class descriptions established by the World Intellectual Property Organization are given in Title 37 of the Code of Federal Regulations, 37 C.F.R. 6.1. Under this schedule, there are 34 classes of goods and 8 classes of services. The short titles (names) of these classes are given below.

International Classification of Goods and Services Short Titles
Click the diamonds for descriptions of the classes.
GOODS   1 Chemicals   2 Paints   3 Cosmetics and cleaning preparations   4 Lubricants and fuels   5 Pharmaceuticals   6 Metal goods   7 Machinery   8 Hand tools   9 Electrical and scientific apparatus 10 Medical apparatus 11 Environmental control apparatus 12 Vehicles 13 Firearms 14 Jewelry 15 Musical instruments 16 Paper goods and printed matter 17 Rubber goods 18 Leather goods 19 Non-metallic building materials 20 Furniture and articles not otherwise classified 21 Housewares and glass 22 Cordage and fibers 23 Yarns and threads	24 Fabrics 25 Clothing 26 Fancy goods 27 Floor coverings 28 Toys and sporting goods 29 Meats and processed foods 30 Staple foods 31 Natural agricultural products 32 Light beverages 33 Wines and spirits 34 Smokers' articles SERVICES 35 Advertising and business 36 Insurance and financial 37 Building construction and repair 38 Telecommunications 39 Transportation and storage 40 Treatment of materials 41 Education and entertainment 42 Computer, scientific & legal 43 Hotels and restaurants 44 Medical, beauty & agricultural 45 Personal

        The Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP) includes some help in determining the proper classification of goods and services in TMEP 1401.02(a). Further guidance is available from the searchable Trademark Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Web site.