A Chinese trademark registration protects you only in the similar groups you actually designated—not the whole class. Most foreign applicants find this out after the fact.
The 13th Edition, 2026 text has been in force since 2026-01-01. CNIPA announced it on 2025-12-26, publishing the changes as a PDF attachment to the notice.
We'll be blunt, because this genuinely matters: search for how Chinese trademark classification works, and the top result is quite likely a beautifully written article from 2019. It was accurate at the time. But the Nice Classification is revised every year and the Classification Table is updated with it—an article from 2019 describes the 11th edition as it stood at the time.
Source: Notice on the adoption of the Classification of Similar Goods and Services (Nice Classification, 13th Edition, 2026 text) · 关于启用《类似商品和服务区分表》（尼斯分类第十三版2026文本）的通知 (CNIPA, 2025-12-26). Last checked: 2026-07-16.
Which version applies, CNIPA states plainly on the official Classification Table page: “When applying for trademark registration, applicants shall file in accordance with the version in force at the time the application is submitted.” In other words, you classify under the version in force on your filing date.
The Nice Classification gives you 45 classes—up to that point, every country is the same. What CNIPA does next has no counterpart in most applicants' home systems. Its official page describes it like this:
The Trademark Office divides the goods and services of the Nice Classification into similar groups and, taking China's own circumstances into account, adds commonly used item names to produce the Classification of Similar Goods and Services. Under each of the 45 classes there are the class heading, [explanatory notes], and the names of goods and services.
— CNIPA — Classification of Similar Goods and Services · Trademark Office (商标局)
In one sentence: the class tells you the neighborhood; the sub-class tells you the street. And in China, what you actually own is the street.
Within a class, goods in the same similar group are usually presumed similar; goods in different similar groups are usually presumed not similar. In practice, the exclusive effect of a registration reaches only the similar groups it actually covers. Examiners apply the Classification Table mechanically rather than comparing goods on the merits case by case.
Note the nature of the rules above: they are examination practice, drawn from how the Classification Table is actually applied. They are not provisions of the Trademark Law, and you will not find an article number for them. The distinction is not hair-splitting—practice can change. If an agency tells you the sub-class system is the law, it has not checked.
Here is how the consequences play out. Say you sell LED lighting components and file in the most obvious class. A competitor—or a squatter—files the identical mark in the same class, in a different similar group. Under the Classification Table, the examiner will not find those goods similar, so both marks proceed to registration. From then on you share your brand with someone else inside your own class, and the remedy is no longer a filing question but an opposition or invalidation—far more expensive than getting the list of goods right in the first place.
The CNY 270 official fee covers 10 goods items in the class; from the 11th item onward, each costs CNY 27. 10 sounds like plenty—until you try to cover all 4 similar groups properly, and find yourself choosing between paying more and leaving gaps.
That is the conversation worth having before you file—and it is not about price, it is about which gaps you can live with. An application that is cheap because the 10 items were chosen well is a good application. One that is cheap because nobody thought about similar groups is a liability that surfaces roughly three years later.
The Nice Classification, 13th Edition, 2026 text, in force since 2026-01-01. CNIPA's rule turns on the filing date: applications filed on or after 2026-01-01 are classified under the 2026 text; those filed earlier stay under the previous edition. So an application you file this week falls under the 13th edition, and any guide written around the 12th edition is describing a different document.
CNIPA subdivides each of the 45 Nice classes into similar groups and adds goods names that reflect Chinese commercial practice, producing the Classification of Similar Goods and Services. The Nice Classification tells you which class you are in; the sub-class tells you which corner of that class you actually occupy.
In practice, no—and this is the most expensive misconception foreign applicants bring to a Chinese filing. Examiners work from the Classification Table: goods in the same similar group are generally presumed similar, and goods in different similar groups are generally presumed not similar. Your registration takes effect only within the scope you designated, not across the whole class. Note that this is examination practice derived from the Classification Table, not a provision written into the Trademark Law.
The CNY 270 official fee covers 10 items; each additional item costs CNY 27. Once you want to cover several similar groups in the same class, 10 is not many—this is the trade-off that has to be settled at filing, and it is why a cheap application can end up protecting almost nothing.
Usually not, and a word-for-word translation does more harm than good. A list drafted to USPTO or EUIPO conventions does not map onto China's Classification Table, and filing non-standard wording through the national route invites office actions. The list has to be rebuilt item by item against the current Classification Table—real work, and the largest part of what you are paying your agency for.
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The statutory procedure and the deadline at each stage.
