USPTO Fees Increase Effective January 18, 2025

The Trademark Office is increasing filing fees as of January 18, 2025. Every two years the Trademark Office reviews its fees, costs, and revenues to ensure trademark operations is recovering its aggregate costs. A number of fees will be impacted, and I will highlight some of those fee changes, but for a review of all the trademark fee adjustments, see the Final Rule.

The current trademark application forms are referred to as TEAS Plus with a current filing fee of $250 per international class and TEAS Standard with a current application fee of $350 per class. The Final Rule replaces these two TEAS forms with one base form for trademark applications filed under Sections 1 and 44 of the Trademark Act and the associated new filing fee is $350. Additional fees ranging from $100 - $200 may apply based on deficiencies or the incompleteness of the filed trademark application.

For example, if the application does not use an identification in the Trademark ID Manual (and instead chooses the free-form text box) to describe the goods and/or services an additional fee of $200 per class will apply. If the identification is too wordy, and it goes beyond 1,000 characters, an additional fee of $200 per class will apply. Of course, this means understanding the applicant’s business prior to filing a trademark application is more important than ever. In some cases, it may be financially worthwhile to utilize the free form text, especially for new technologies, to be confident that the registration will accord sufficient protection for the goods and/or services.

If the USPTO finds there is insufficient information in the application an additional fee of $100 per class will apply. Some of these deficiencies include: (1) filing the trademark application without the required declaration; (2) failing to properly classify all the goods and/or services and to pay for all of the international classifications; (3) if the application is based on use, neglecting to provide evidence of use in commerce and dates of use in commerce for each class; and (4) if so required, failing to include a translation of non-English wording or a transliteration of non-Latin characters.

An application filing fee with The World Intellectual Property Organization “WIPO” under 66(a) of the Trademark Act is $600 per class effective January 18, 2025. A subsequent designation fee filed with WIPO under 66(a) of the Trademark Act is also $600 per class. Of course, the base application is subject to the new fee structure of $350 per international classification.

Regarding intent to use filing fees, I’ll provide you with the good news first. There is no increase when filing an Extension Request to extend the time to file a Statement of Use, this remains at $125 per class. However, the fee to file either an Amendment to Allege Use (AAU) or to file a Statement of Use (SOU) has increased to $150 per class. Petitions and Letters of Protest fees have also increased as follows: Petition to the Director is $400 (prior filing fee was $250); Letter of Protest is $150 (prior filing fee was $50); and a Petition to Revive is $250 (prior filing fee was $150).

Post registration maintenance fees will also increase as of January 18, 2025. The filing fee for a Section 8 Declaration of Use has been increased to $325 per class, a Section 15 Declaration of Incontestability is $250 per class, a Section 9 Registration Renewal Application is $325 per class, a Section 71 Declaration of Use is $325 per class, and a Renewal Fee filed at WIPO is $325. The USPTO argues that these post registration increases are necessary to continue to balance the cost of base applications, to offset the higher processing costs of these trademark filings, and to rebalance fee collections derived from these fees due to changes in filing patterns and demand.

Lastly, January 18, 2025, is also the effective date for additional changes at the Trademark Office. As of this date, an applicant will have to use the newly created “Trademark Center” to apply for registration. The Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) will be available up until January 18, 2025, for trademark filings. The USPTO states that the new features offered by the Trademark Center will provide for a better user experience and promote a more efficient trademark examination process. Let’s hope that this optimism rings true in 2025 for all of us! If you have questions regarding the new trademark filing fees or forms, please feel free to contact the firm for a courtesy consultation.