Crypto and Web3 Trademarks: What Classes 9 and 36 Cover Now

At iGERENT, we often notice global shifts before they reach the headlines. Not because we predict markets, but because we watch what businesses choose to protect. When the United Kingdom voted for Brexit, we saw filings reshuffle across Europe. When crypto went mainstream, we saw that too, in the form of new brand names, new countries, and a very specific set of trademark classes landing on our desks.

Crypto and Web3 brands are some of the most valuable and most copyable names being built today. A token can travel the world in seconds, and so can an imitator. Yet many founders treat trademarks as an afterthought, or assume Class 9 alone has them covered. The classes you choose decide what you actually own, and in a borderless industry that distinction matters more than ever.

This article looks at what Class 9 and Class 36 really cover for crypto and Web3 projects today, and at the classes teams routinely overlook.

What "crypto" and "Web3" mean for a brand owner

You do not need to be technical to protect a crypto brand, but it helps to know what you are actually protecting.

• Crypto (cryptocurrency) is digital money recorded on a blockchain, a shared ledger that no single party controls. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the best-known examples.
• Tokens are units of value or access issued on a blockchain. Some behave like currency, others act like membership passes, points, or digital collectibles.
• NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are blockchain records that certify a specific digital item, such as artwork, a profile picture, or an in-game asset, as unique.
• Web3 is the broader idea of an internet built on blockchains, where users own assets and identities directly rather than through a single platform.

From a trademark point of view, none of that is the thing you register. What you protect is the brand: the project name, the logo, the token ticker, the wallet app, the marketplace. The blockchain is the technology. The trademark is the name people trust, and the thing scammers copy.

Why crypto and Web3 brands are unusually exposed

Most industries give a brand time to grow before competitors notice. Crypto does the opposite.

• It moves fast. A project can go from idea to global launch in weeks, often before anyone files a single trademark.
• It is borderless. Users, copycats, and counterfeit tokens can appear in any country, which is exactly why protection has to be international rather than local.
• It is pseudonymous. Bad actors are hard to identify and harder to sue, so a registered right you can actually enforce is worth far more than an informal claim.
• Impersonation is the norm. Fake tokens using a real project's name, lookalike wallet apps, and scam "airdrops" trade directly on brand confusion.

A registered trademark will not stop every scam. But it gives you standing to act: to file takedowns, pressure exchanges and app stores, recover domains, and shut down a copycat before it raises money off your reputation. Without it, you are negotiating from nothing.

Class 9: the software and digital-asset core

If a crypto or Web3 project files in only one class, it is almost always Class 9. This is the class for software and digital products, and it has quietly become the center of gravity for the entire industry.

Class 9 typically covers:

• Downloadable software: wallet apps, trading apps, browser extensions, node software.
• Downloadable virtual goods: digital items used online and in virtual worlds, from wearables to in-game assets.
• Digital files authenticated by NFTs: since 2023, the Nice Classification expressly lists "downloadable digital files authenticated by non-fungible tokens" in Class 9.
• Hardware: physical crypto wallets and security devices.

The "now" part matters. After a wave of NFT and metaverse filings, the major offices clarified how they read these terms. The EUIPO confirmed that virtual goods belong in Class 9, because they are treated as digital content, and that an NFT is a certificate of authenticity rather than a product in itself. In practice, vague claims no longer fly. "Virtual goods" or "NFTs" on their own are rejected as unclear. You have to say what the virtual good actually is, for example downloadable virtual footwear or downloadable digital art files authenticated by NFTs.

For most Web3 brands, Class 9 is non-negotiable. But it is rarely enough on its own.

Class 36: the financial layer

The moment a project touches money, Class 36 comes into play. This is the class for financial and monetary services, and it covers much of what people actually mean when they say "crypto."

Class 36 typically covers:

• Cryptocurrency exchange services: buying, selling, and converting digital currencies.
• Custody and wallet services: holding or safeguarding digital assets for others.
• Payments and transfers: processing transactions made in crypto.
• Token issuance and financial information: offering a digital currency, or financial data about one.

Class 36 is also where examiners look hardest. Financial services are regulated, and trademark offices scrutinize crypto-financial claims more closely than they did a few years ago. Descriptions need to be precise about the service being offered. An exchange, a payment processor, and a wallet provider do not all do the same thing, and their filings should not pretend otherwise.

A useful way to split it: Class 9 protects the software you ship, and Class 36 protects the financial service you run. Many projects do both, which is why the two classes appear together so often.

The classes crypto projects forget

This is where filing strategy separates a serious brand from a hopeful one. Anchoring on 9 and 36 is correct, but a real project usually touches more. The classes teams most often overlook:

• Class 35 (business and retail services): online marketplaces that connect buyers and sellers of NFTs or virtual goods, plus advertising and business services. If you run a marketplace, the marketplace service itself lives here, not in Class 9.
• Class 42 (technology services): non-downloadable, hosted software (SaaS and "blockchain as a service"), platform development, and the back-end technology behind a Web3 product. If users reach your software in the cloud instead of downloading it, Class 42 matters as much as Class 9.
• Class 41 (entertainment and education): online gaming, metaverse experiences, events, and content. Many "play to earn" and metaverse brands need this and never file for it.
• Class 45 (security and legal): identity, authentication, and online security services built on blockchain.

The lesson is simple. Crypto and Web3 brands rarely fit neatly into one or two boxes. A single project can be software (9), a financial service (36), a marketplace (35), and a hosted platform (42) all at once. Filing only for the obvious classes leaves the rest of the business unprotected.

What the filing data tells us

Because we help businesses file trademarks in more than 180 countries, we see these patterns directly, before they show up in any report.

When crypto sentiment runs high, requests cluster around Class 9 and Class 36, and around jurisdictions with clearer digital-asset rules. When regulation tightens in one market, filings drift toward friendlier ones. We saw similar behavior with Brexit, when uncertainty pushed businesses to rethink where in Europe they secured protection. Crypto produces the same kind of signal: the classes and countries businesses choose are a quiet map of where the industry feels safe building.

It is also why our crypto and Web3 work skews international from day one. These brands are not protecting a local shop. They are protecting a name that already operates everywhere, which makes a single-country trademark feel obsolete almost immediately.

How to protect a crypto or Web3 brand in practice

A short, practical checklist for founders and teams:

1. Clear the name before you launch. A quick trademark search tells you whether the name is even available, and saves an expensive rebrand after you have traction.
2. Choose classes by what you do, not by hype. Map your real activities (software, exchange, marketplace, platform, content) to classes. Do not file for "everything crypto," and do not stop at Class 9 by reflex.
3. File early in priority markets. Identify the countries where your users, investors, and competitors actually are, and file there first. In a borderless industry, that is usually more than one.
4. Decide what to protect: name, ticker, or both. Token tickers are short and collision-prone. Protect the project name first, then consider the ticker where it carries real brand weight.
5. Watch for impersonators. Set up monitoring so you hear about copycat tokens and lookalike apps early, while a takedown is still cheap and fast.

Done in this order, trademark protection becomes a launch asset rather than a cleanup job.

The takeaway

For crypto and Web3 projects, the choice of trademark classes is not paperwork. It is strategy. Class 9 protects your software and digital assets, Class 36 protects your financial services, and the classes around them, 35, 41, 42, and 45, decide whether the rest of your business is covered or exposed.

In an industry where a brand can be cloned in an afternoon and a token can reach the other side of the world before lunch, the registered right is the one thing you can actually enforce. The projects that take class strategy seriously, early and internationally, are the ones still standing when the copycats arrive.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information only, not legal advice. Trademark rules and class practice vary by country and by the specific facts of each case.

Protect your crypto or Web3 brand

If you are building in crypto or Web3, the time to secure your name is before it gains traction, not after a copycat does. iGERENT has helped 12,000+ businesses file 25,000+ trademarks across 180+ countries since 2014, with one dedicated specialist coordinating local counsel, fixed quotes, and clear timelines.

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