CIPO’s Top 10 Nice Classes

In a 10 May 2021 email notification, CIPO announced a gradual expansion of its Goods and Services Manual “beginning with the top ten Nice classes filed within the last ten years”.  This post looks at top 10 Nice classes in various ways.

In its notification¹, CIPO indicates that the top 10 Nice classes covered by Canadian trademark applications filed within the last ten years are classes 3, 5, 9, 16, 25, 30, 35, 36, 41, and 42.  To check that I queried a data warehouse based on CIPO’s trademark .xml data (as of 3 May 2021).  My query result confirms CIPO’s assertion, subject to a quibble over whether class 21—not class 30—should round out the top 10.  [To avoid skewing the results I excluded Section 9 (i.e. prohibited) marks since CIPO allocates all Nice classes to every Section 9 mark.  7,024 of the 578,436 applications filed between 2011 and 2020 were Section 9 applications.]

I begin with a bar chart depiction of the Top 10 Nice classes encompassed by Canadian trademark applications filed between 2011 and 2020:

Note the relative importance of each Nice class—corresponding to the length of each bar.  The horizontal axis units are number of filings.  For example 202,994 of the 571,412 applications filed between 2011 and 2020 (excluding Section 9 applications) included goods in Nice class 9.

A mark owner’s perception of “top” Nice classes will depend on the nature of the business associated with the mark(s).  That can be expanded to take in an entire economic region, e.g. a Canadian province, a country, etc.  

The next 6 charts compare the top 10 Nice classes in applications filed between 2011 and 2020 by mark owners having Canada (CA), United States of America (US), Germany (DE), United Kingdom (GB), France (FR) and China (CN) nationality.  All charts in this post use the same colours for each Nice class to simplify comparison.

The colour (i.e. Nice class) distributions and bar lengths in the above charts reflect some important economic differences.  Also note:

• the top ranking of Nice class 35 (advertising, business management, etc.) in filings by Canadian applicants;
• the significance of Nice classes 7 and 12 (respectively: machines, machine tools, etc.; vehicles) in filings from Germany and China and the absence of both of those classes from the top 10 classes of the other 4 nationalities;
• the significance of Nice class 1 (chemical products for use in industry, science and agriculture) in filings from Germany and the absence of class 1 from the top 10 classes of the other 5 nationalities;
• the top ranking of Nice class 3 (cosmetics, toiletries, perfumery, etc.) in filings from France;
• the significance of Nice class 28 (games, toys etc.; video game apparatus; sporting goods; etc.) in filings from the United States of America and China; and the absence of class 28 from the top 10 classes of the other 4 nationalities;
• the significance of Nice classes 33 and 38 (respectively: alcoholic beverages; telecommunications services) in filings from France and the absence of both of those classes from the top 10 classes of the other 5 nationalities; and
• the significance of Nice classes 18 and 20 (respectively: leather / imitation leather goods; furniture, etc.) in filings from China and the absence of both of those classes from the top 10 classes of the other 5 nationalities.

The next 4 charts compare the top 10 Nice classes in applications filed thus far in 2021 by Ontario, Québec, British Columbia and Alberta mark owners.

Again, the colour (i.e. Nice class) distributions and bar lengths in the above charts reflect some noteworthy interprovincial economic differences.  Also note the significance of Nice classes 21 and 37 (respectively: household / kitchen utensils etc.; oil and gas drilling) in filings from Alberta and the absence of both of those classes from the top 10 classes of the other 3 provinces.

The final chart shows the top 10 Nice classes encompassed by the 33,602 inbound Madrid applications that CIPO has received (as of 3 May 2021) since coming into force (CIF) of the 17 June 2019 amendments to the Trademarks Act, RSC 1985 c. T-13 (TMA).

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1 The notification provides: The Trademarks and Industrial Designs Branch (TIDB) is expanding the number of entries in the Goods and Services Manual to improve timeliness in examination. The Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) is continuously seeking improvements to ensure the quality and timely delivery of intellectual property rights. To this end, the Office will be gradually expanding the number of active and retired entries in the Goods and Services Manual. Beginning with the top ten Nice classes filed within the last ten years (i.e. classes 3, 5, 9, 16, 25, 30, 35, 36, 41, and 42), approximately 100 entries will be added to the Manual each week in both English and French. Additional notes will also be published in the Manual to provide clarification as to why an entry has been retired by the Office and to indicate the level of specificity that is required for an entry to be considered acceptable. Expanding the Goods and Services Manual will improve consistency and quality in examination, while providing more certainty to applicants when filing or amending a trademark application. CIPO will issue updates twice a month to inform of the changes that have been made to the Manual. We appreciate your support and continued engagement as we work towards becoming a premiere Trademarks Office. ^↩