Class 45 Filings Down Nearly Half as IPO Overhaul, Fee Hike, and Series Mark Abolition Converge on Legal Services Brands

The numbers, and they are not flattering

1. That is the number of UK trademark applications filed in Nice Class 45 (legal and personal services) during Q3 2026, according to AIBD analysis of IPO Trade Mark Database data. Against the prior comparable period, that is a fall of 47.6%. Class 45 covers legal services, notary services, company secretarial services, and the various other activities that constitute the professional heartland of this desk's readership. A contraction of nearly half is not a blip. It is a signal, and it wants explaining.

Three things happened more or less simultaneously. They are related only in the way that buses are related: not by design, but by the remorseless tendency of regulatory events to cluster.

The fee that changed everything for series marks

From 1 April 2026, the UK IPO's online filing fee settled at £205 for the first class and £60 for each additional class. That in itself is not the story. Fees go up, firms adjust, life continues. What matters more is the abolition of the series mark. Under the old system, applicants could file up to six similar marks (colour variants, minor stylisations) within a single application. That option is gone. Each variant must now be filed separately, at full per-class cost. A firm that previously protected four logo variants under one Class 45 application for £205 now faces four separate applications at £820. The economics of brand protection changed materially overnight, and the rational response for many smaller legal services firms is to file fewer marks, more selectively, and defer the rest. The filing volumes suggest that is exactly what is happening.

Herrington Carmichael, writing earlier this month, put it plainly: businesses relying on multiple brand variants face "increased filing costs and administrative burdens, as well as the need to adopt a more focused approach to brand protection." That last phrase is practitioner-speak for: some marks are not getting filed.

Nice 13 and the notary services clause

Since 1 January 2026, all new UK trademark applications have been examined under the 13th edition of the Nice Classification. The changes to Class 45 are, for most filers, clarifications rather than disruptions. Notarial services are now expressly included within the class, having previously occupied an ambiguous position on the register. The broader architecture (legal services, personal and social services) is unchanged.

What the 13th edition did require is that practitioners review all pending applications and existing portfolio monitoring criteria to ensure alignment with the new terminology. That is administrative work, and administrative work done under time pressure tends to be deferred. Some of the Q3 softness in Class 45 volumes likely reflects practices completing that review before filing, rather than firms abandoning brand protection entirely.

September's overhaul, and what AI has to do with it

The more structural development sits just ahead. In May, MLex reported that the UK IPO will begin an overhaul of its trademark filing and search systems in September, with AI tools among the new instruments under evaluation. The driver is a growing volume of non-traditional trademark filings (sounds, gestures, motion marks) that existing search infrastructure handles poorly, making it difficult for examiners to identify conflicts. The IPO is, in the understated phrase of official communications, "grappling" with this.

For Class 45 practitioners, the September overhaul carries a particular edge. Legal services are precisely the services most likely to be delivered by AI-adjacent platforms filing non-traditional marks. A legal tech firm protecting an audio identifier for its AI compliance tool files in Class 45. So does a company secretarial platform filing a motion mark for its onboarding animation. The IPO's search problem is, partly, a professional services problem. Practices advising clients in this space should be watching the September announcement closely.

What this means for your Monday morning

The immediate compliance calendar has three items worth keeping visible on the wall.

Brand audit, now. The series mark abolition is not reversible. Any legal services firm that has been relying on a series application to cover brand variants should conduct a portfolio review before the next scheduled renewal or modification triggers the new rules. Existing registrations are unaffected, but the protection gap widens each quarter that new variants go unfiled.

Class 45 specification review. The Nice 13 changes require that any pending application or live monitoring watch-list be updated to reflect the new class descriptions. Notarial services filers in particular should confirm their specifications are correctly cross-referenced under the 13th edition terminology.

November director verification. Separately (and unrelated to trademark practice, but affecting every client on the company secretarial roster) all existing directors and Persons with Significant Control must complete identity verification with Companies House by November 2026 to avoid enforcement action. The transitional period opened after 18 November 2025. It does not feel urgent in August. It will feel extremely urgent in October.

The SIC 2026 overhang

One further complication for the professional services sector: the ONS published the new SIC 2026 framework on 28 April 2026, which for the first time explicitly recognises AI-related activities and separates general-purpose AI software development from broader software categories. Companies House has not yet mandated adoption, and the earliest practical transition is expected in a parallel acceptance period running from late 2026 into mid-2027. Law firms, compliance consultancies, and company secretarial practices whose activities have evolved since they last updated their SIC 2007 codes face an approaching reclassification moment. The current SIC code for legal activities (69.10) is unchanged in the 2026 framework. Company secretarial and related activities under 82.11 and 82.99 are similarly stable. What changes for AI-native legal services businesses is the availability of more precise codes that did not previously exist. Getting ahead of that reclassification is voluntary today. Confirmation Statement season makes it administratively straightforward to do it now.

The next deadline on the horizon

November 2026: director and PSC identity verification hard deadline, Companies House. For any practice managing statutory compliance on behalf of clients incorporated before November 2025, the verification window is not yet closed, but it is measurably narrowing.

In September, the IPO's technology overhaul begins. Whether it simplifies or complicates the filing workflow for non-traditional Class 45 marks will be a question for October's dispatch. For now, 833 applications in a quarter that expected considerably more is the number that wants watching.