The United States Patent and Trademark Office is raising some of its trademark filing fees effective January 18, 2025.
In many cases, the initial filing fee will increase by $200 per class of goods or services. The exception is where the listed goods or services are found in the USPTO’s “identification manual” – their pre-set list of goods and services. In my experience, that list is incomplete, and many trademark applications require a custom-crafted list – which means the additional $200 fee will apply to those classes.
If the custom list of goods or services in a particular class exceeds 1,000 characters, an additional $200 fee will apply (that’s $200 for each additional 1,000 characters) – so applicants must choose their words carefully! A “laundry list” of every kinds of product you can think of in a certain class may cost you extra. Strategic legal counsel can help you to craft your trademark application to get the best result while managing the new USPTO fees.
For Intent-to-Use applications, which are the most common form of application that we file, the USPTO filing fee for a Statement of Use is going up by $50, and the filing fee for an Extension, if necessary, is also going up by $50.
Trademark registrations have to be renewed within the 5th and 6th year following registration, within the 9th and 10th year, and every 10 years thereafter. Those renewal fees are going up as well – effectively by $150 for the first renewal, in most cases, and by $125 for subsequent renewals.
Again, these are per class – so if your application or registration contains multiple classes of goods or services, the fee increase will apply to each class individually.
Some other less-common trademark filings will have fee adjustments as well (no surprise that they’re all increases). The full set of fees and other info from the USPTO can be found here.
If you’re reading this before January 18, 2025, get your trademark filings in early to avoid the additional fees. And if you require strategic legal counsel to optimize your trademark applications, please feel free to contact me.
