The European Union Intellectual Property Office (the
"EUIPO") has recently confirmed that
services relating to virtual goods and non-fungible tokens
(NFTs) will now be classified in line with the
established principles of classification for services. Therefore
these terms will now be stipulated in the new version of the Nice
Classification (12th edition) which is applicable from
1st January 2023. The reason for including such terms is
due to the increase in
trade mark applications which has been filed over recent years
with the EUIPO covering virtual goods and NFTs.
The EUIPO makes clear that class 9 is appropriate for virtual
goods, given that they are treated as digital content or images.
The EUIPO has stated however that a classification for simply
"virtual goods" alone would not be considered to
have a sufficient level of clarity or precision. It's therefore
essential that additional detail is provided which specifies the
content to which the goods relate. For
