Drafting an Identification of Goods and Services: A Practitioner's Guide to the ID Manual, Scope, and Amendment
By Casey Scott McKay ·
This guide walks a practitioner through drafting, filing, defending, and amending an identification of goods and services, one stage at a time, using a single client carried from intake to international filing. It covers the client interview that actually produces usable facts, the offering-to-class map, when to take an ID Manual entry and when to pay the custom-identification surcharge, the sentence architecture that survives examination, and the restriction language that wins DuPont factors without hollowing out your rights. It gives model identification text for downloadable software, SaaS, education, consulting, marketplace, and apparel classes, plus a decision tree for the downloadable-versus-hosted question and a full cost-and-timeline table across a five-class filing. It then handles the office action: reading an indefiniteness requirement, counter-proposing wording, negotiating an examiner's amendment by phone, and running the scope test under 37 C.F.R. § 2.71(a) before you propose anything. It closes with divisional practice under 37 C.F.R. § 2.87, post-registration audits and deletion fees, coordinating one identification across a portfolio and through Madrid, and what to do when an identification refusal goes final.
IP and Technology > Trademarks | Guide | Published 2 May 2025 - Updated 2 January 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
Summary. This is the working manual for drafting an identification of goods and services and living with it afterwards. It runs from the client interview through the offering-to-class map, the ID Manual decision, the sentence architecture, the multi-class filing plan, the indefiniteness and classification office actions, amendment practice under the scope ratchet, divisionals, post-registration audits, and Madrid coordination — with model language, a decision tree, a cost-and-timeline table, and one client carried through every stage. The doctrine behind it lives in the companion article; this document is about execution.
Keywords: identification of goods and services · id manual · nice classification · trademark class · 37 cfr 2.71 · tmep 1402 · custom identification surcharge · downloadable software class 9 · saas class 42 · field of use · indefiniteness refusal · classification refusal · examiner's amendment · request to divide · 37 cfr 2.87 · post-registration audit · madrid identification · bona fide intent · multi-class application · specimen fit
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