U.S. Trademark Application Filing Changes and Fee Increases on the Horizon

Effective January 18, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is changing direct filing options for trademark applications, as well as increasing and adding new fees for a number of filings. Here are some of the more impactful changes.

Base Application and Surcharge Fees

Only one type of electronic trademark application (“base application”) will be available for filing non-Madrid trademark applications. The base application fee of $350.00/class of goods or services will stay the same as the current, standard application filing fee. However, surcharge fees could add significant costs to the base application fee, namely:

• $200.00 surcharge fee/class for identifying goods or services outside of the standardized listings in the USPTO’s Trademark ID Manual
• $200.00 surcharge fee/class for each group of 1,000 characters used to identify goods or services beyond a first 1,000 characters (including punctuation and spaces)
• $100 surcharge fee/class for applications deemed to contain insufficient information, such as, a missing translation of non-English wording in a mark or a missing description of a stylized or design mark.

The addition of surcharges to the base application filing fee could significantly increase filing costs for multi-class applications. Such surcharges may be difficult to escape, as many applicants will find that their offerings do not fit the standardized listings in the Trademark ID Manual.

Post-Registration Maintenance and Other Fees

The required, 6-year declaration of use fee will increase from $225.00 to $325.00/class for registrations. A declaration of incontestability filing increases from $200.00 to $250.00/class. However, the 10-year renewal fee will only slightly increase by $25.00/class (from $300.00/class to $325.00/class).

Allegation of use fees for applications are increasing from $100.00/class to $150.00/class. Further, fees for petitions to the Director and to revive, as well as protest fees, are increasing by at least $100.00.

More information on these changes can be found at Summary of 2025 trademark fee changes | USPTO.  Please reach out to Shipman counsel with any questions or concerns regarding navigating these changes.