The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the government office in charge of trademark registration, categorizes trademarks into 45 different “classes” of goods and services. The goal of these classes is to allow various types of businesses to register their trademarks in categories that are most closely connected to their primary business. Vehicles, devices, machinery, and apparatus for land, air, and water movement are classified as Class 12. Motors and engines for land vehicles, as well as couplings, transmission components, and air-cushion vehicles, are all included in this category.
Examples of Trademarks in Class 12
ROYAL COACH (cars and vans), CRAZY CART (go-carts), and INTERLOCK (bicycle accessories) are all good examples of Class 12 marks.
You would not use Class 12 if you were registering:
- railway material of metal (Class 6 – Common Metals),
- motors, engines, couplings, and transmission components other than for land vehicles (Class 7 – Machines), or
- Parts of motors and engines (of all kinds) (Class 7 – Machines).
Related or Coordinated Classes
If you are not sure whether you should register in Class 12, you might also consider the following “coordinated” classes:
- Class 7 – Machines,
- Class 35 – Advertising and Business Services,
- Class 37 – Construction and Repair Services,
- Class 42 – Science and Technology Services.
A coordinated class is one that is linked to another, usually because the USPTO has discovered that applicants who file in Class 12 also file in these other classes.
The amount of registration fees you pay to the USPTO will be determined in part by the class system. A class system governs trademark registration. You must pay a separate registration fee for each class of goods or services that you register. You must pay two fees if you register for a trademark for posters (Class 16) and shirts (Class 25).
When you register a trademark, you must select the appropriate class. You must restart the application process if you list the incorrect class.
Your registrations are limited to classes that cover the goods or services you already offer (as evidenced by the specimens you submit) or plan to offer in the future (if you are registering on an intent-to-use basis). In order to refine a search of the USPTO’s trademark database, you may also require information regarding the class number.
Furnishing Specimens for Class 12
If the mark is utilized in commerce, you must provide a sample of the mark as it appears to customers. The mark must be seen on or in connection with the products in commerce on the specimen. A trademark specimen should be a label, tag, or container for the goods, or an associated display. It is acceptable to provide a photocopy or other reproduction of a specimen of the mark as it is used on or in connection with the goods.
A label is an admissible specimen in most circumstances where the trademark is affixed to the goods or containers for the items in Class 12 by means of labels. If shipping or mailing labels are placed to the items or to the containers holding the goods, and if valid trademark usage is established, they may be accepted. If the mark is just used as a trade name and not as a trademark, they are not acceptable. The use of the phrase purely as a return address is an example of this.
A legitimate form of trademark affixation is to stamp a trademark on the goods, on the container, or tags or labels connected to the goods or containers. The trademark can be imprinted in the goods’ body, as with metal stamping; it can be applied with a rubber stamp, or it can be inked on with the help of a stencil or template. Photographs or facsimiles of the real stamping or stenciling are permitted as specimens when a trademark is utilized in this way.
The word “applied to the containers for the commodities” refers to any sort of commercial packaging that is customary for the specific goods as they move through trade. As a result, an admissible specimen is a display of the trademark on the regular commercial package for the specific Class 12 items.
Gasoline pumps, for example, are ordinary containers or “packing” for gasoline. If this is the regular method of use of a mark for the particular products, a specimen showing the use of the trademark on a vehicle in which the goods are marketed to the relevant purchasers may represent the use of the mark on a container for the goods.