International class 5

Trademark Class 5: Pharma & supplements

Medicines, vitamins, supplements, or other health and medical products.

The USPTO sorts every product and service into one of 45 international classes. A trademark is registered class by class, for what you actually sell, which is why the same word can be registered by different owners in different classes. Class 5 is the class for medicines, vitamins, supplements, or other health and medical products.

What class 5 covers

Common goods in this class:

Real USPTO descriptions in class 5

The USPTO keeps a list of descriptions it has already accepted, called the Trademark ID Manual. It holds 2,192 for class 5, and these are the ones that match what businesses in this class most often sell. Every line below is the USPTO's exact wording. If you describe your goods in the manual's words, the description is already approved, which is the easiest way to avoid an objection to it.

The usual mistake with class 5

Pharmaceutical preparations, supplements and medicated goods. Two lines run through it. Medicated skin care is here while non-medicated skin care is Class 3. And the drug is here while the instrument is Class 10: adhesive bandages are Class 5, but syringes and orthopedic bandages are Class 10.

Classes often filed alongside it

A business in class 5 often needs these classes too, or finds its goods mistaken for theirs. This is our own reading of how businesses file, not an official USPTO list.

Class 3 · Cosmetics & cleaningClass 44 · Medical & beauty servicesClass 10 · Medical devicesClass 29 · Meats & prepared foods

How the class affects your application

The class is not a category you choose for convenience. It follows from the identification of goods you write, and that description is what your registration actually covers. Write it too narrowly and you protect less than you meant to. Write it too broadly and you have a different problem, because you must really be using the mark on everything you list.

The USPTO charges its filing fee for each class, so every extra class adds to the cost. The fees change from time to time, so check the current schedule on uspto.gov rather than trusting a number on a blog, including ours.

Searching a name in class 5

Picking the class is the easy half. The harder half is whether someone already holds a similar mark for related goods. An examiner can refuse a mark that only resembles an earlier one. It does not have to be an exact match.

This is where the class number misleads people most. Relatedness is judged on what the identifications actually say, not on whether two marks sit in the same class. Genuinely related goods are routinely split across classes, and a single class often holds goods that have nothing to do with each other. A search that looks only inside class 5 can miss conflicts that an examiner would find. Two of our guides explain how that judgment is made: the different-industry question and how similar is too similar.

Common questions about class 5

What is trademark class 5?

Class 5 is the international (Nice) class for medicines, vitamins, supplements, or other health and medical products. It is one of 45 classes, and a U.S. trademark application has to name the class or classes that match what you actually sell.

What does class 5 cover?

Typical goods include medicines, vitamins, supplements, bandages, baby formula and disinfectants. The USPTO lists 2,192 accepted descriptions for this class in its Trademark ID Manual, and the examples on this page come from that list.

How much does it cost to file in class 5?

The USPTO charges its filing fee for each class, so two classes cost twice as much as one. Fees change, so check the current fee schedule on uspto.gov rather than a figure quoted anywhere else.

Do I need more than one class?

Often, yes. You file in every class that matches what you actually sell. You cannot add a class just for extra protection, because you have to be using the mark in every class you claim.

Check a name in class 5 Searches the live USPTO register for identical marks, sound-alikes and meaning-alikes. First search $2.

What class 5 covers, in the words people use

Each of these is a thing the USPTO's own manual puts in Class 5, with the accepted descriptions behind it.

diapersinsect repellentmedicinepharmaceuticalsupplementvitamin
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Free tools: class finder · deadline calculator · what a report looks like · how to trademark a name © LaunchTime IP · Software, not a law firm. General information about U.S. trademark law and the Nice Classification, not legal advice. Class lists are a guide: the USPTO decides how your goods are classified from the identification you file.