The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced significant changes to trademark filing fees, which will take effect on January 18, 2025. The changes impact both new applications and post-registration maintenance fees, as well as several specific fees related to petitions, protests, and statements of use, and includes new fees related to insufficient application information and failure to prepare an application using the USPTO’s pre-approved identifications from its Trademark Identification Manual.
Key Changes to Application Fees
Retirement of TEAS Plus Applications
The USPTO previously had two different trademark filing “tiers” —TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard—whereby TEAS Plus had a $250 per class filing fee, and TEAS Standard had a $350 per class filing fee. The Office has now consolidated their forms into one “base application” with a fee of $350 per class filed under Sections 1 and 44 of the Trademark Act (applications filed based on use, intent to use, foreign applications, and foreign registrations). Additional fees will be added based on the complexity or completeness of the application, as discussed below.
Fees for Inaccurate and Incomplete Applications
The USPTO is introducing several new fees aimed at encouraging applicants to provide a “complete” application or be assessed with additional fees per class. If an application under Sections 1 or 44 lacks sufficient information, applicants must pay an additional $100 fee per class.
Applicants who use free-form text boxes (instead of using the Trademark ID Manual) to identify goods and services will be charged a $200 fee per class. If the USPTO Trademark ID Manual does not accurately identify your goods and services, it will be $550 per class (as opposed to $350). Furthermore, each additional group of 1,000 characters in the free-form text box will incur a $200 fee per affected class.
Because of the time it can take to prepare identifications using the Trademark ID Manual prepare identifications, and those identifications that do not conform to the Trademark ID Manual, most applications have relied on the free form. With the cost increasing to a potential $550 per class by using the free form for custom identifications and more if the identifications are over 1,000 characters, we will help you determine the best strategy for filing your applications.
Increase in Madrid Protocol Application Fees
For international applicants under the Madrid Protocol, there will be an increase in the application fee for Section 66(a) filings.
- The new fee for filing an application via WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) will be raised to $600 per class, up from $500.
- Similarly, the subsequent designation fee for Madrid filings will also increase from $500 to $600 per class.
The inaccurate and incomplete application fee system will not apply to Madrid filings. Note that changes to relevant Madrid Protocol fees will not go into effect until February 18, 2025, giving Madrid filings one additional month.
Post-Registration Maintenance Fee Increases
As part of the fee adjustments, the USPTO is increasing the fees associated with post-registration maintenance filings.
- Section 9 registration renewal applications will increase from $300 to $325 per class.
- The Section 8 declaration fee will rise from $225 to $325 per class.
- The Section 15 declaration fee, which affirms the incontestability of a trademark, will also see an increase from $200 to $250 per class.
- The Section 71 declaration fee, which is required for the continued registration of a U.S. trademark owned by a foreign registrant, will rise from $225 to $325 per class.
Changes to Petition and Protest Fees
Several fees related to petitions and letters of protest are also increasing.
- The fee for a Petition to the Director will rise significantly, from $250 to $400.
- The cost to revive a trademark application that was inadvertently abandoned will increase from $150 to $250.
- The fee for filing a Letter of Protest will rise from $50 to $150.
Adjustments to Intent-to-Use Filings
The USPTO has also raised the fees for Amendment to Allege Use (AAU) and Statement of Use (SOU) filings, which have not been adjusted since 2002.
- Amendment to Allege Use (AAU) and Statement of Use (SOU) filings will increase from $100 to $150 per class.
Strategies Going Into 2025 Trademark Filing and Renewal
The USPTO restructured its fees to encourage applicants to use the USPTO’s pre-approved identifications (thus decreasing its costs to review custom identifications) and ensure that applications include all required information required to prosecute a trademark application. We will work with you to help carefully craft your identification of goods and services to ensure that your application avoids additional fees, and that all information is included to avoid potential fees for insufficient information.
File New Applications and Maintenance Documents Before January 18, 2025
If you have new applications you wish to file, or if your registration is in the window for its Declaration or Renewal, filing prior to January 18, 2025, will save you up to $125 – $400 per class.
As an Applicant, you should be prepared to provide us with certain information related to the application that previously may have only been addressed in an Office Action. For example, by omitting the following information, your application could be assessed an additional $100 per class:
- If the mark includes non-English wording, an English translation of that wording
- If the mark includes non-Latin characters, a transliteration of those characters
- If the mark includes an individual’s name or likeness, either (1) a statement that identifies the living individual whose name or likeness the mark comprises and the written consent of the individual, or (2) a statement that the name or likeness does not identify a living individual
- If the applicant owns one or more registrations for the same mark, and the owner(s) last listed in Office records of the prior registration(s) for the same mark differs from the owner(s) listed in the application, a claim of ownership of the registration(s) identified by the registration number(s)
- Correctly classified goods and/or services, with an identification of goods and/or services from the Office’s Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual within the electronic form
Because certain information may be subjective, such as a mark description or translation, an examiner could issue an Office Action and charge an insufficient information fee. We will have the chance to submit arguments stating that a fee is inappropriate, but this may increase application costs.
We recommend providing us with any potential English translations if your mark is a non-English word. We also strongly suggest any possible mark translation be included in a pre-filing trademark search.
Don’t Assume Your Goods and Services Are Currently in the Trademark Identification Manual
The USPTO has no plans for a comprehensive review of the ID Manual. If, upon review, the current ID Manual does not have options relevant to your application and scope of goods and services, we may submit proposed new entries. The USPTO will determine whether to include the proposed Identification, recitation, or a modified version in the ID Manual. In addition, the USPTO will inform us whether the suggestion is accepted, rejected, or accepted in a modified form, typically within one to two business days. If accepted, the ID will generally appear in the next weekly update.
If there is an emergency and you need to file an application as quickly as possible, please note that the filing fee may be $550 per class if you do not have time to properly contact the USPTO for an identification proposal.
Conclusion
These fee increases may impact your filing strategies. The base fee for an application is just that—a base. If you are in a field where the standard trademark identifications are not appropriate or do not yet exist, you may wish to proceed with a free-form identification. In addition, if the Identification manual does not allow for broad protection, you may also wish to incur the additional $200 per class to ensure your mark is sufficiently custom and fits the scope of goods/services used in connection with your trademark.
