Marketplace Trademark: Which Classes to File?
Classes 35, 42 and 38: how to structure a marketplace trademark filing at INPI or EUIPO.
Marketplaces occupy a unique position from a trademark law perspective, because they combine several activities within a single product: a technology platform, a matchmaking service, and often commercial transactions. The choice of classes cannot be reduced to a single category — it must reflect this plurality.
Before filing, verify your trademark is available and registrable and choose between a French or European trademark. For the full process, see the trademark filing guide.
Class 35 is generally the priority class for a marketplace. It covers matchmaking services for buyers and sellers, advertising, commercial intermediation, and online retail services.
The nuance matters: if your marketplace allows third-party sellers to sell their products (Amazon Marketplace or ManoMano model), you fall within commercial intermediation — class 35. If you sell your own products online, that is standard e-commerce and the relevant product classes (1 to 34) take priority. For this distinction, see the article on retail trademark filing.
For class 35, I recommend specifying the type of intermediation: “the bringing together of [category] products for the benefit of others, enabling consumers to conveniently view and purchase those goods”. This is the wording recognised by EUIPO for marketplace services.
If your marketplace runs on a SaaS platform — which is almost always the case — class 42 is essential: software as a service (SaaS), software design and development, hosting of online platforms, cloud computing.
This class protects the technological dimension of your business, distinct from the commercial dimension covered by class 35. Both are complementary. For SaaS filing specifics, see the article on classes for a SaaS trademark.
If your marketplace includes user-to-user messaging, notifications, an integrated chat, database access, or forums, class 38 is relevant. This applies to the majority of modern marketplaces.
If you handle payments on behalf of your sellers (escrow, split payment), class 36 (financial services) may be necessary. Simply using a third-party payment processor (Stripe, Mangopay) is not enough to justify this class — it is relevant when the payment service is a structural component of your offering.
The most frequent mistake I see among marketplace founders is filing only in class 42 (the technology platform) while forgetting class 35 (the intermediation). Yet intermediation is the core value proposition of a marketplace. Without class 35, your trademark does not protect your main activity.
The choice of classes for a marketplace depends on your model (B2B, B2C, C2C), the type of transactions (goods, services, or both) and your ancillary features. If you would like to file your marketplace trademark, book a call.
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