The question everyone asks first
Are video games in Class 28? No — and this is the single most common misfile in the toy and game world. Video and computer games are Class 9 software, and online play or entertainment services are Class 41. Class 28 is reserved for physical games and toys: board games, card games, puzzles, playthings. A modern board game with a companion app needs Class 28 plus Class 9, and sometimes Class 41 too.
Nintendo's original 1889 business was playing cards — a Class 28 product a century before anyone had heard of a video game. That history is a useful frame for the class today: toys, dolls, action figures, plush toys, ride-on toys, building sets and construction kits, board games, card games, dice games, puzzles, playground equipment, and sporting goods — balls, bats, rackets, gloves, athletic equipment, fishing tackle. It's the toy-aisle-and-sporting-goods-store class, defined by physical, tangible play.
Toy Line, Game Franchise, or Licensed Character — Three Different Filing Problems
Toys and games are unusually licensing-heavy, and that complicates class strategy well beyond the physical/digital split. A toy line based on a film character genuinely touches three or four separate registrations at once: the character name (often held across multiple classes by the film studio or rights holder), the toy product itself (Class 28), and entertainment or merchandising rights (Class 41) — sometimes held by two or three different companies simultaneously. For an original toy or game brand without a licensing entanglement, the priority is simpler: register the product name in Class 28, and add Class 9 and Class 41 only if there's an actual digital component or online service attached.
Hasbro's Monopoly, Nerf, Play-Doh, Transformers, and Magic: The Gathering, and Mattel's Barbie, Hot Wheels, UNO, and Fisher-Price, both illustrate just how deep a toy portfolio can run once a company has decades of product lines to protect. LEGO adds a further layer, holding not just the wordmark but, in some jurisdictions, a protected configuration of its minifigure and brick shape — trade dress protection stacked on top of an already-registered name.
Sporting Goods Are Not Sportswear
A separate boundary matters just as much as the digital one: sporting goods — balls, bats, rackets, gloves, equipment — are Class 28, while athletic clothing and footwear are Class 25. A sports brand selling both gear and apparel needs registrations in both classes, and this is a distinct question from the video-game boundary, easy to overlook once you've already resolved the digital question. Where a toy or game name sits on the distinctiveness scale also matters more here than in most classes, because the toy market is crowded, seasonal, and fast-moving, with copycats appearing within a single product cycle.
Collectible Cards Are Their Own Small Battlefield
Trading cards and collectible card games occupy a genuinely interesting sub-niche inside Class 28, because the products at the center of it — Magic: The Gathering being the obvious example, alongside sports and entertainment trading cards generally — combine a physical Class 28 good with a franchise, tournament, and secondary-market ecosystem that pulls in several other classes at once. Organized play and tournament services are Class 41. Digital companion apps for deck-building or card scanning are Class 9. And where a card game is built on licensed characters or intellectual property from film or television, the underlying character rights sit with the licensor in whatever classes they've registered, entirely separate from the card manufacturer's own Class 28 filing on the physical product. A new entrant into collectible card games should expect to be navigating at minimum a two-class filing from day one, and potentially a licensing negotiation on top of that if any part of the game's theme borrows from existing characters or franchises.
Puzzles Are a Deceptively Broad Sub-Category
Puzzles cover more ground within Class 28 than the word usually suggests in casual conversation — jigsaw puzzles, mechanical and 3D puzzles, and logic or brain-teaser puzzles all fall here as physical playthings, alongside escape-room-style puzzle kits sold for home use. Where this gets more complicated is branded digital puzzle apps, which move into Class 9 as software and, if there's an online leaderboard or social competition element, potentially Class 41 as well. A puzzle brand that started as a physical product and later launched a companion mobile app — a common trajectory in this space — needs to treat the app launch as triggering a fresh classification question rather than assuming the original Class 28 registration already covers it.
Search registered Class 28 trademarks before you commit to packaging and a launch — and map your Class 28 / 9 / 41 split at the outset if any part of the product is digital, licensed, or offered as an online service.