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Trademark International Class: Class 16 (Paper goods and printed matter)

Written by: Shannon Moore

Article Overview: All goods or services are categorized within International Classes (IC hereafter). Goods run from classes IC 1-34, while Services are in IC 35-45. Let's take a closer look at one of these trademark classes – class 16.

Trademark International Class: Class 16 (Paper goods and printed matter)

All goods or services are categorized within International Classes (IC hereafter). Goods run from classes IC 1-34, while Services are in IC 35-45. Let's take a closer look at one of these trademark classes - class 16. What is International Class 16 All About?

Each class has a short title heading that gives a snapshot of what that class is all about -- IC 16's short title is paper goods and printed matter. But, as with anything trademark, there's more to it than that. The USPTO has about 1500 accepted descriptions that fit into IC 16.

Anything that's made of paper or is printed is in IC 16, which includes things like posters, journals, greeting cards, art prints, magazines, books, calendars and on and on.

What about Book Titles?

This is a caveat worth exploring a bit. Titles of a single creative work are not protected by trademark law; however, trademark registration may be possible if the title is used on a series of creative works. Let's delve into this a bit further.

Single creative works consist of materials where the content does not change, such as a book, a DVD, downloadable songs and a film. Single creative works do not include periodically issued publications, such as magazines, newsletters, brochures, comic books, comic strips or printed classroom materials, because the content of these works change with each issue.

When it comes to titles for a book series, the rationale is the same. While the title stays the same, the content changes.

What Else is in International Class 16?

Seems like with any of these trademark classes, there always seems to be the oddball item or two and IC 16 is no exception. Here are a few items living in IC 16 that seem to be a bit off kilter:

• cd shredders for home or office use

• globes

• cosmetic pencil sharpeners and removing paper

• money clips

Related Articles
  Trademark International Class: Class 18 (Leather goods)
  Trademark International Class: Class 14 (Jewelry)
  Trademark International Class: Class 36 (Insurance and Financial Services)
  Trademark International Class: Class 20 (Furniture and articles not otherwise classified)
  Trademark International Class: Class 25 (Clothing)

Article Tags: art prints, book titles, caveat, classroom materials, comic strips, creative work, creative works, delve, greeting cards, kilter, magazines books, money clips, paper goods, pencil sharpeners, printed matter, shredders, trademark classes, trademark law, trademark registration, uspto



Related Forum Posts
Same Name, Different Class - Don't despair the lack of response as your entry posted on a Saturday when many here are not reviewing the Board. It matters less that like marks are assigned to the same class as much as it does whether their goods/services are the same or confusingly similar. Classes are used to determine filing fees. The same goods and services are often mentioned in multiple classes. "Clothing", for instance, is mentioned in 17 different classes of goods and services at the PTO. What's important is that the goods/services you are offering under your mark are not the same goods/services the medical company is offering under theirs. If there is no confusion of use in the marketplace, then there should be no problem with using the exact same mark. If, however, there is another entity already using the same mark with the same goods/services, then you may have a problem. I am not an attorney so you might want to consider having an attorney order a full, international trademark search from a qualified search entity, such as T&T, CT research or NameProtect, to make sure your mark is truly available for use and registration. It's $1K+ well spent when you consider what you will be investing in your mark to get your goods into production and distribution. Well, I filed an application online so let's see what happens. Thank you for taking the time to respond
Re: The Future of Newspaper - Not a bad idea. My local newspaper has an online version, and I can tell you that less and less people buy the printed version. One reason may be due to the quality, or lack thereof. In any case, I think, eventually, all newspapers will be online, if not already, and the printed versions will be faded out. Maybe not completely, but mostly. One thing that irks me is that the online version of my local paper isn't always updated, so if you're okay with seeing the same news for the past 2 months, then that's fine. Not all categories are like this, but the main news is. Plus, they don't have all the sections you can find in the print version. Not a bid deal, but still annoying. I'm certainly not going to pay for the printed version. I think that at some point they should work to develop the online version to make it complete. They can work on monetizing it better to earn more money and make up for what they're losing with offline subscriptions. Anyone else seeing this happen with their local newspaper? What do you think will become of your local paper? Does it have an online version?
Re: Which is the best for beginners? - Hi Apu, I think one good way for Internet beginners to start is to experiment with selling stuff on eBay. In my own case I began by making a website about Japanese mahjong and then tried selling some mahjong goods on it. It worked! Actually, I remember that before I tried selling mahjong goods I experimented with selling other kinds of thing such as Japanese comics on eBay and things like that. I only got into affiliate marketing later on, and used the money I was making selling goods to fund my experiments with affiliate and network marketing.
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Recycling Papers - Paper business sounds good. But I think, recycled papers are better since we need to preserve nature and trees are going to be scarce if we just continuously cut them.


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