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New USPTO Trademark Fees Go Into Effect January 18, 2025

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Effective January 18, 2025, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will implement a new fee schedule for trademark filings. According to the USPTO, the purpose of the fee changes is to “enhance the quality of incoming applications, encourage efficient application processing, ensure additional examination costs are paid by those submitting more time-consuming applications, and reduce pendency.”

Key points

  • The USPTO set a flat $350 base application fee per class of goods or services, new fees for free-form or lengthy identifications of goods and services, and new fees for insufficient information provided in original applications.
  • The USPTO is raising fees related to the prosecution of trademark applications, the maintenance of trademark registrations, the petitions process, and the protest of third-party applications.
  • These fee changes are effective January 18, 2025.

New fees

On top of the flat $350 application fee per class, the Office will now charge applicants an additional $200 per class if any listed goods and/or services in any class in the application do not appear verbatim in the USPTO Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual (ID Manual) or otherwise comply with USPTO instructions. For multi-class applications that rely primarily but not exclusively on the ID Manual, filing separate applications for the more expensive free-form goods and services may be prudent. While useful, the ID Manual is not exhaustive and will never cover every potential good or service an applicant intends to offer. If a free-form identification of goods or services in any class exceeds 1,000 characters, an additional fee of $200 applies for each additional set of 1,000 characters. These fees place a new emphasis on brevity in drafting identifications of goods and services.

These fees apply only to applications filed under Sections 1 and 44 of the Trademark Act, not those filed under the Madrid Protocol (Section 66). These surcharge fees will therefore primarily impact domestic applicants, even though foreign applicants filing under the Madrid Protocol typically include the most verbose identifications of goods and services.

We recognize these fees may disproportionately impact our clients with unique or highly specialized goods or services. Please speak with your Fish attorney regarding strategies to minimize surcharges while ensuring the appropriate breadth of new filings.

In addition to the new fees related to the identification of goods and services, the USPTO will assess an “insufficient information” fee of $100 per class for applications that do not include all information required at the time of filing.1 This is information your Fish attorney routinely provides in each filing.

If you would like to discuss how these changes may affect your filing and prosecution strategies, please contact your Fish attorney or see the USPTO’s examination guide.

Description

Paper or Electronic

Current

New

Base application, per class

Electronic

N/A

$350

Insufficient information fee, per class

Paper

N/A

$100

Insufficient information fee, per class

Electronic

N/A

$100

Fee for using free-form text box for identification of goods and services, per class

Paper

N/A

$200

Fee for using free-form text box for identification of goods and services, per class

Electronic

N/A

$200

For each additional group of 1,000 characters beyond the first 1,000 characters, per class

Paper

N/A

$200

For each additional group of 1,000 characters beyond the first 1,000 characters, per class

Electronic

N/A

$200

Increased fees

The USPTO will otherwise increase trademark fees as follows:

Description

Paper or Electronic

Current

New

$ Change

% Change

Paper application, per class

Paper

$750

$850

$100

13%

Application fee filed with WIPO (Section 66(a)), per class

Electronic

$500

$600

$100

20%

Subsequent designation fee filed with WIPO (Section 66(a)), per class

Electronic

$500

$600

$100

20%

Amendment to Allege Use, per class

Paper

$200

$250

$50

25%

Amendment to Allege Use, per class

Electronic

$100

$150

$50

50%

Statement of Use, per class

Paper

$200

$250

$50

25%

Statement of Use, per class

Electronic

$100

$150

$50

50%

Section 9 registration renewal, per class

Paper

$500

$525

$25

5%

Section 9 registration renewal, per class

Electronic

$300

$325

$25

8%

Renewal fee filed at WIPO

Electronic

$300

$325

$25

8%

Section 8 declaration, per class

Paper

$325

$425

$100

31%

Section 8 declaration, per class

Electronic

$225

$325

$100

44%

Section 15 declaration of incontestability, per class

Paper

$300

$350

$50

17%

Section 15 declaration of incontestability, per class

Electronic

$200

$250

$50

25%

Petition to the Director

Paper

$350

$500

$150

43%

Petition to the Director

Electronic

$250

$400

$150

60%

Petition to revive an application

Paper

$250

$350

$100

40%

Petition to revive an application

Electronic

$150

$250

$100

67%

Letter of Protest

Electronic

$50

$150

$100

200%

Section 71 declaration, per class

Paper

$325

$425

$100

31%

Section 71 declaration, per class

Electronic

$225

$325

$100

44%

  1. These minimum requirements for a base application include: the applicant’s name and domicile address; the applicant’s legal entity; the citizenship of each applicant or state/country of organization for juristic applicants; at least one filing basis; a description of the mark if not in standard characters; a filing fee; a translation of non-English wording; a transliteration of non-Latin characters; a statement of colors claimed as a feature of the mark, if applicable; consent of a living individual named in a mark, if applicable; etc. A full list of minimum requirements is available at 37 CFR § 2.21(1)–(20).

The opinions expressed are those of the authors on the date noted above and do not necessarily reflect the views of Fish & Richardson P.C., any other of its lawyers, its clients, or any of its or their respective affiliates. This post is for general information purposes only and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed.