The United States Patent & Trademark Office is adjusting its trademark filing fees as of January 2, 2021. The USPTO has stated that it is balancing the need to provide the public with reasonable fees while maintaining sufficient revenue to run its trademark related services and to be able to complete its strategic objectives. A summary of the primary changes is listed below, but for those interested, see the Final Rule. The TEAS Plus application fee was $225 and will be adjusted to $250 per international classification. The TEAS standard application fee was $275 and will now be $350 per class. If you do not meet the TEAS Plus requirements upon submission the processing fee will be $100 per class, instead of $125 per international class.
There are also changes to Petition fees and Protest Letter fees. It will now cost $250 to file a Petition to the Director, an increase of $150. The filing fee for a Petition to Revive an abandoned application is now $150, up from $100. Lastly, in the past there was no fee to file a Letter of Protest and effective January 2, 2021 there will be a $50 filing fee per trademark application. Also, the procedure for filing Letters of Protest is being codified. These codifications will be effective on January 2, 2021, see Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure §§ 1715-1715.06 . A third-party filer must provide an itemized index of evidence, and not submit more than 10 items of evidence or more than 75 pages, unless there are special circumstances.
Regarding post registration fees, there will be an increase for filing Section 8 and 71 filings for Declarations of Use and/or Excusable Nonuse. The fee will be $225 per international class, up from $125 per class. A new filing fee of $250 per international classification will be effective for registrants that delete goods, services or classes from a trademark registration AFTER submitting a Section 8 or 71 Declaration and before the Declaration is accepted. This means that a registrant will not incur a fee if goods or services or classes of goods and/or services are deleted when filing the Section 8 or Section 71 Declaration. In addition, no fee will be incurred if a registrant electronically files a Section 7 Request to Amend its registration before submitting a Section 8 or 71 Declaration. This new fee is aimed at improving the integrity of the Trademark Register. The Trademark Office is hoping that the new fee will encourage trademark counsel and trademark owners to determine sooner the goods and services that may no longer be in use in the trademark registration. It’s important to keep in mind that a registrant can delete goods and services from a registration at any time by filing a Section 7 Request. Encouraging trademark owner accountability will facilitate the USPTO’s strategic goal of a more reliable Trademark Register.
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s fees are also being modified. In addition, there are several new fees being enacted: (1) requests for oral hearings will now have a $500 fee per proceeding; (2) a second or subsequent request for an extension of time to file an appeal brief in an ex parte appeal will now have a $100 fee per application; and (3) an appeal brief filed in an ex parte appeal will have a fee of $200 per international classification. Other fees being adjusted include: (1) a Notice of Opposition filing fee will be $600 per class, a $200 increase; (2) a Petition to Cancel filing fee will be $600 per class as well, also up from $400; (3) an initial 90-day extension request to file a Notice of Opposition, or a second 60-day extension request to file a Notice of Opposition will now be $200, a $100 increase; (4) a final 60-day extension request for filing a Notice of Opposition will now be $400, a $200 increase; and (5) an ex parte appeal filing fee will be $225, up from $200. It should be noted that no fee will be imposed for an initial 30-day extension request for filing a Notice of Opposition. These trademark filing fee increases underscore the costs involved in trademark registration and enforcement activity and provide good reason to engage trademark counsel to increase the likelihood of success in trademark prosecution, post registration filings or trademark proceedings. If you have questions regarding the new trademark fees or any question pertaining to trademarks, please feel free to contact the firm for a courtesy consultation.