Class 43: Food, Drink & Accommodation
Class 43 covers serving food and drink and providing somewhere to stay: restaurants, cafés, coffee shops, bars and pubs, takeaways, caterers, hotels, B&Bs and holiday lets, and some less obvious services such as boarding for animals and renting out meeting rooms. It’s the thirteenth most used of the 45 classes, with 33,694 UK registrations between September 2021 and September 2026, which is about 5% more registrations than the average class. Hospitality names are often local and descriptive, so similar names in the same area clash more often than people expect.
What class 43 covers
This is the official Nice heading, in full:
Services for providing food and drink; temporary accommodation.
Two ideas, both services. The first is preparing and serving food and drink for customers, whether they eat in, take away or are fed at an event. The second is temporary accommodation, a bed for the night or the week, rather than a home or an office let on a long lease. What class 43 doesn’t cover is the food and drink as products, which sit in the goods classes.
The mistake I see most often
The mistake is protecting the restaurant or hotel and forgetting the products sold under the same name. Serving food is class 43. The sauces, coffee, chocolates or gin you sell at the counter, in a shop or online are goods in their own classes.
Take a popular restaurant that starts bottling its signature sauce, selling it in the restaurant and then in supermarkets. The restaurant is protected in class 43, but the sauce is class 30. File only class 43 and a food company could register the same name for sauces, and the restaurant may find it can’t use its own name on the product that’s growing fastest.
A lot of my work is cease and desist, and this is a pattern I see: a restaurant becomes known, and someone else registers its name for food products before the owners think to. A UK application can’t have classes added once it’s filed, so putting it right means a fresh application, a second set of fees and, sometimes, a dispute that could have been avoided. Map out where the brand could go, the jars, the shop and the website, before you file.
When you definitely need class 43
- You run a restaurant, café, coffee shop, bar or pub
- You run a takeaway, food truck or street food business
- You’re a caterer, for events, weddings or businesses
- You run a hotel, B&B, guest house or holiday let
- You provide boarding for pets, or rent out meeting and event rooms
When you might need class 43 without realising
The businesses I see miss class 43 usually think of themselves as food producers, venues or property owners.
- Food and drink brands with a tasting room or café. A brewery, distillery or bakery sells goods in class 32, 33 or 30, but serving them on site is a class 43 service. Bar services appear on 4,435 registrations and café services on 4,395.
- Event and wedding venues. Hiring out the space for a function and feeding the guests are class 43 services. Rental of meeting rooms appears on 1,220 registrations and catering services on 5,753.
- Holiday let owners. Short stays are temporary accommodation, so they sit here rather than with property. Rental of holiday accommodation appears on 777 registrations.
- Kennels and catteries. Looking after pets overnight is a class 43 service, and boarding for animals appears on 428 registrations.
Not sure whether you’re selling a product or a hospitality service? The free class tools below show you where businesses like yours actually file, or you can give us a call.
What businesses actually claim in class 43
These are the terms that turn up most often in recent UK class 43 registrations:
| Term | Marks using it | Share of class 43 | How common |
|---|---|---|---|
| restaurant services | 9,220 | 27.4% | Most use this |
| services for providing food and drink | 6,835 | 20.3% | Most use this |
| catering services | 5,753 | 17.1% | Most use this |
| food and drink catering | 5,742 | 17.0% | Most use this |
| restaurants | 5,661 | 16.8% | Most use this |
| bar services | 4,435 | 13.2% | Most use this |
| provision of food and drink | 4,430 | 13.1% | Most use this |
| café services | 4,395 | 13.0% | Most use this |
| takeaway food and drink services | 4,374 | 13.0% | Most use this |
| temporary accommodation | 4,182 | 12.4% | Most use this |
Restaurants lead the table. Restaurant services is claimed on 9,220 registrations, followed by the heading wording, services for providing food and drink (6,835), and catering services. Takeaway terms come close behind, which reflects how many food businesses now sell for collection or delivery.
Accommodation is a smaller part of the class than people assume. Temporary accommodation appears on 4,182 registrations and hotel services on 2,458. If you run a café, a cocktail bar or a guest house, naming that service gives you a clearer specification than the broad heading alone.
What class 43 does not cover
Coffee, bread and other food products are class 30. Serving coffee in your café is class 43, but bags of branded coffee beans or packaged sandwiches sold to take home are goods in class 30, where coffee appears on 6,255 registrations and sandwiches on 2,825. A coffee shop selling its own beans needs both.
Own-label beer and wine are classes 32 and 33. A bar or restaurant that bottles its own drinks is selling goods. Beer is class 32, on 2,981 registrations, and wine is class 33, on 2,977. A pub with its own ale needs class 32 alongside class 43.
Delivering the food is class 39. Cooking is class 43, but delivering meals to customers’ doors is a transport service, where delivery of food by restaurants appears on 815 class 39 registrations. A restaurant with its own delivery riders usually needs both.
Long-term lettings are class 36. Short stays are class 43, but renting out homes or offices on longer leases is a real estate service in class 36, where rental of real estate appears on 1,610 registrations. A property business with both holiday lets and longer lets needs both classes.
Where these terms actually live
| Term | Belongs to | Marks using it |
|---|---|---|
| coffee | Class 30 | 6,255 |
| sandwiches | Class 30 | 2,825 |
| beer | Class 32 | 2,981 |
| wine | Class 33 | 2,977 |
| rental of real estate | Class 36 | 1,610 |
| delivery of food by restaurants | Class 39 | 815 |
Each of these is a separate registration. A mark in class 43 does not cover any of them.
Is class 43 the right class for you?
If you serve food or drink, cater, run a bar, café or takeaway, provide hotel or holiday accommodation, board animals or rent out rooms for events, class 43 is very likely yours. If you also sell packaged food or drinks, deliver meals or let property long term, look at classes 29, 30, 32, 33, 39 and 36 as well.
Our free class tools build a specification from wording already accepted on real UK filings, so you can see what businesses like yours claim before you commit.
Common questions about class 43
Is a coffee shop class 43 or class 30?
The coffee shop is class 43, because serving drinks is a service, and coffee shop services appear on 2,274 registrations. Class 30 covers coffee as a product. If you roast and sell your own beans, or sell branded coffee online, you need class 30 as well.
Answered by Jonathan Paton, Founder & CEODo holiday lets need class 43 or class 36?
Holiday lets are usually class 43, because short stays are temporary accommodation. Class 36 covers renting property on longer terms and managing it for owners. A holiday let company that also manages properties for landlords often claims both.
Answered by Jonathan Paton, Founder & CEOIs a nightclub class 43 or class 41?
Usually both. The entertainment, music and events are class 41. Serving drinks at the bar is class 43, and cocktail lounge services appear on 1,187 registrations. Most nightclubs and music venues claim both classes.
Answered by Jonathan Paton, Founder & CEOWhat class is a dog kennel or cattery?
Boarding pets overnight is class 43. Grooming is a different service, in class 44, and dog walking is class 45. A pet business offering boarding, grooming and walking usually needs more than one class, so it’s worth listing each service before filing.
Answered by Jonathan Paton, Founder & CEOAbout these figures. Last researched 23 September 2026, from UK trademarks registered between September 2021 and September 2026 whose entry in this class is still active. That is current drafting practice rather than the historical register. Terms shown are those most frequently used in that period.
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