A Guide to Trade Mark Class 36

Emily Young

• 25 August 2021
• 25 August 2021
• 4 min read

A trade mark is one type of intellectual property (IP) protection that gives you the exclusive rights to your business’ brand assets. These exclusive rights include the right to prevent others from infringing on your trade mark, serving as both a legal and marketing tool. Trade mark classes are a way of categorising trade marks by their use. When making your trade mark application, you will be required to nominate the classes under which you will use your trade mark. One of these classes is trade mark class 36, which pertains to insurance, financial and real estate services.

To help you better understand trade mark classes, this article will take you through their purposes and the services included in class 36.

Trade Mark Classes

The Nice trade mark classification system separates trade marks into 45 different categories. There are 34 categories of goods and 11 categories of services. When applying for trade mark registration, you will need to nominate one or more of these classes as part of the application form.

The process of selecting trade mark classes is important because it determines the scope of your protection. Your trade mark will only be protected under the goods and services classes that you select, making this a critical process. 

Once you have chosen your trade mark classes, you will not be able to add more classes to your application. This makes it critical that you select the right trade mark classes at the time of application. 

Trade Mark Class 36

Trade mark class 36 is a service class that covers insurance, financial and real estate services. Some of the services that fall under trade mark class 36 are outlined in the table below.

Note that the above table is a non-exhaustive list and should be considered a guide only.

Coordinated Classes

If you consider trade mark class 36 relevant, you may wish to explore other trade mark classes. Coordinated trade mark classes refer to classes with common crossover. For class 36, coordinated classes include class:

• 35 – advertising and business services;
• 38 – telecommunication services; 
• 41 – education and entertainment services; and
• 45 – legal and security services. 

Choosing Trade Mark Classes

There are two key things to note when choosing your trade mark classes. Firstly, it is important to not choose too few classes. This will put you at risk of your protection scope being too low. Since it is not possible to add new trade mark classes later, ensure you select as many relevant trade mark classes in the first instance.

On the other hand, choosing too many trade mark classes may lead to issues. You must use your trade mark under each trade mark class you select or risk losing it. This is more difficult to do when you have chosen many classes. Further, you pay per trade mark class when making your application. As a result, having too many classes may result in unnecessary expenses. 

Key Takeaways

When making a trade mark application, you must choose the best trade mark classes for your business. Trade mark class 36 may be suitable for you if your business relates to services such as: 

• insurance;
• real estate; 
• banking and finance;
• trading;
• currency;
• debt; or
• valuation.

If you need assistance determining the trade mark classes most suited to your goods or service, or general trade mark legal assistance, get in touch with our experienced IP lawyers on 1300 657 423. 

Frequently Asked Questions