Class trends: services recover with growth in domestic filings
Trade mark applications are assigned into goods and services classes using the Nice Classification – an international system of 45 goods and service classes.1
Applicants nominated 170,460 classes in 2025, averaging 1.75 classes per application.
Services classes grew by 18.5%, compared with 10.7% for goods classes, reversing several years of relative softness in services.
Notable growth (see Figure 3.5) occurred in:
- financial services (+25.1%)
- construction services (+24.0%).
- scientific and technological services (+23.4%)
- advertising and business services (+21.9%).
Advertising, the lead trade mark class in Australia, covers a broad mix of different services, including retail, advertising, business management and advisory services.
Figure 3.5
Top 5 goods and service classes for trade mark filings in 2025, and classes with strong growth or decline. 2Among goods classes, clothing, footwear, and headwear continued to increase (+18.1%) on the back of strong filings from China.
Technology-related classes, including scientific and technological services, and technological and electrical apparatus, also rebounded after 2 years of decline, driven primarily by a surge in domestic filings. Applications in this class include those for AI products and services, which are seeing significant growth in investment in Australia.3
Resident trade mark filers remain more concentrated in service-intensive sectors, notably residents file:
- 5.1 times more medical and veterinary service trade marks than international applicants
- 4.0 times more construction services trade marks
- 3.8 times more legal service trade marks.
The class composition reinforces the service-oriented character of Australia’s domestic competitive landscape.
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IP Australia offers a free digital tool, TM Checker, to make it easier for small businesses to check if a trade mark is available. The tool uses AI technologies to deliver customised information that guides customers through the process, all the way to completing an application. Users can check whether their idea for a trade mark is similar to existing registered marks, avoiding costly mistakes and saving time.
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International leaders
International lead filers in 2025 included established global brands and a number of new entrants engaged in cross-border ecommerce.
- French cosmetics producer L’oreal led, climbing from third in 2023 and second in 2024, increasing its applications each year
- New entrants with a focus on ecommerce included the Chinese firms Weihai Trophy Import & Export and Gudao Crossborder Ecommerce Weihai, in third and fourth place
- Two Korean technology multinationals retained their position in the list: Samsung Electronics returned to the top 5, climbing from eighth in 2024, followed by LG Electronics
- Canadian retailer Dollarama was a new entrant to Australia.
Following the acquisition of The Reject Shop in early 2025, Canadian retailer Dollarama filed 60 trade marks in Australia as it began to rebrand the stores and phase in new product lines. In mergers and acquisitions, early trade mark filing can support smoother brand transitions by signalling ownership and reducing uncertainty.
Domestic leaders
Domestically, gaming machine producer Aristocrat Technologies remained the leading filer for the third consecutive year. Aristocrat was followed by Pharmacor and Ainsworth Game Technology. Filing volumes among the leading gaming firms declined relative to prior years.
Figure 3.6
Top domestic and international applicants for trade marks in Australia, 2025Endnotes
- For more information, see https://www.wipo.int/classifications/nice/en/.
- Focuses on high volume fields defined as classes in the top quartile for total number of applications received in 2025.
- J Fernando, K McLoughlin and R Ratnayake, ‘Technology, Investment and AI: What are Firms Telling Us?’, Reserve Bank of Australia, 13 November 2025, accessed 14 April 2026.