To trademark a phrase, you file an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) identifying the specific goods or services the phrase will identify, pay a base fee of $350 per class, and then work through examination, a 30-day public opposition window, and (for intent-to-use filings) proof of actual commercial use. The average time from filing to registration is about 10.1 months. Before you spend anything, though, you need to know whether the phrase is even eligible.
Can Your Phrase Be Trademarked?
The USPTO will only register a phrase that is distinctive and used, or genuinely intended to be used, in commerce to identify the source of specific goods or services. A phrase written down in a notebook does not qualify. Where the phrase falls on the distinctiveness spectrum decides how hard registration will be.
- Fanciful phrases are made-up words invented to serve as a trademark. Easiest to register, strongest to enforce.
- Arbitrary phrases use real words in a context unrelated to their ordinary meaning (APPLE for computers). Also strong.
- Suggestive phrases hint at a quality of the product without describing it directly. Registrable without extra proof.
- Descriptive phrases directly describe the goods or services (“Cold and Creamy” for ice cream). Not registrable unless you can show the phrase has acquired secondary meaning, meaning consumers already associate it with your brand.
- Generic phrases are the common name for the product itself. Never registrable, no matter how long you have used them.
If your phrase sits in the fanciful, arbitrary, or suggestive zone, you are in strong shape. Descriptive, expect pushback. Generic, pick something else.
Search for Conflicts First
Before you pay anything, search the USPTO’s trademark database for registered and pending marks that are similar to your phrase and cover related goods or services. The USPTO offers a free search tool on its website.
This step is not a formality. The examining attorney assigned to your application will search the database independently and refuse registration if your phrase is confusingly similar to an existing mark for related goods or services. Similarity in sound, appearance, or meaning is enough to trigger a refusal. Finding the conflict after you have paid the filing fee and waited months is an expensive way to learn this.
Filing the Application
Applications are filed through the USPTO’s electronic filing system. As of March 2026, the base fee is $350 per class of goods or services. Everything that follows lives inside that application.
Pick Your Goods and Services Description
Every application must identify the specific goods or services the phrase will be associated with. Select from the USPTO’s Identification of Goods and Services Manual, which lists pre-approved descriptions. Using a pre-approved description avoids extra processing fees. Writing your own costs more per class and can prompt the examining attorney to require you to narrow or reclassify it later.
Choose a Filing Basis
You have to tell the USPTO whether you are already using the phrase or plan to.
- Use in commerce (Section 1(a)) applies when you are currently selling goods or providing services under the phrase. You submit a specimen showing that use with the application.
- Intent to use (Section 1(b)) applies when you genuinely plan to use the phrase commercially but have not started. The USPTO will not issue the registration until you later file a Statement of Use with a specimen showing actual commercial use. That filing costs $150 per class.
Two additional bases exist for applicants who own foreign registrations or applications; most domestic filers use one of the two above.
Submit a Valid Specimen
A specimen is real-world evidence of your phrase working as a trademark in commerce. It has to show the phrase functioning as a source identifier, so that a consumer would understand it points to your brand rather than reading as decoration or a general slogan. A lot of applications stumble here.
For goods, use product labels, packaging, and tags where the phrase appears. For services, use website screenshots showing the phrase in connection with your services, advertising, signage, or invoices tying the phrase to the services. Website specimens must include the URL and the date you accessed the page, and they have to be real pages, not mockups.
Watch Out for the Ornamental Refusal
This one catches people trying to protect a catchy phrase for merchandise. A phrase splashed large across the front of a t-shirt reads as decoration to consumers, not as a brand identifier, and the USPTO will likely refuse it as merely ornamental. A small, discrete placement on a pocket or label area reads more like a trademark. Size, location, and prominence all factor into the analysis.
Symbols on the Application
Do not put the ® symbol on the phrase in your application. That symbol is only lawful once the USPTO has actually issued a registration, and using it prematurely can get your application rejected. Before registration, use ™ for goods or ℠ for services; no application is required to use those.
What Happens After You File
About four and a half months after filing, an examining attorney reviews the application. Often you will receive an office action, a letter identifying problems.
Substantive issues are the harder ones. The most common is likelihood of confusion with an existing mark: the examiner compares the phrases, compares the goods or services, and asks whether consumers might think both come from the same source. Overcoming this takes real legal argument, sometimes supported by evidence of coexistence in the marketplace. Procedural issues, like an inadequate specimen or an overly broad description, are usually solved by submitting corrected documents.
You have three months from the date of the office action to respond. You can buy a three-month extension for $125, taking the total window to six months. Miss the deadline and the application is abandoned. For substantive refusals, a trademark attorney is worth serious consideration; the quality of the argument decides whether the application survives.
Once the examining attorney approves the application, the phrase is published in the USPTO’s weekly online Trademark Official Gazette. That opens a 30-day window for anyone who believes your trademark would harm them to file a formal opposition with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Oppositions play out like miniature litigation and can take a year or more; most applications never see one.
If no one opposes, a use-in-commerce application moves to a registration certificate. An intent-to-use application gets a Notice of Allowance, and you then have six months to file your Statement of Use with a specimen proving actual commercial use.
Timeline and Total Cost
As of early 2026, the average time from filing to registration is about 10.1 months. That average assumes no serious complications. An office action or an opposition can stretch it well past a year.
For a single class with no complications, government fees look like this:
- Base application fee: $350
- Statement of Use (intent-to-use only): $150 per class
- Office action extension, if needed: $125
Each additional class adds $350 to the base fee. An application covering three classes starts at $1,050 in filing fees alone. If you hire a trademark attorney, that will usually be the largest line item, and responding to a substantive refusal almost always needs professional help.
Keeping the Registration Alive
Registration is not the end of the process. The USPTO requires ongoing filings proving you are still using the phrase in commerce. Miss a deadline and the registration is canceled.
- Between years 5 and 6, file a Section 8 Declaration of Use. Electronic filing is $325 per class.
- Between years 9 and 10, file both a Section 8 Declaration of Use and a Section 9 Renewal Application. That is $325 per class for each, or $650 per class combined.
- Every 10 years after that, repeat the combined Section 8 and Section 9 filing.
Each deadline has a six-month grace period, but filing during it costs an additional fee. Miss the grace period too and you start the whole application process over.
Using the ® Symbol
Once the registration certificate issues, switch from ™ or ℠ to ®. It is the only symbol tied to federal registration, and using it before your trademark is actually registered violates federal law. Place it in superscript to the right of the phrase.
Enforcing What You Registered
A registered trademark is only as strong as the effort you put into policing it. Federal registration gives you the tools: the right to sue in federal court, remedies including injunctions, monetary damages, and recovery of the infringer’s profits, and the option to record your registration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to block counterfeit imports.
The obligation is not optional. Trademark owners who ignore infringement can lose the ability to enforce against a specific infringer, and if the phrase becomes so widely misused that it loses its distinctiveness, the rights can disappear entirely. Practical enforcement starts with monitoring competing products, online marketplaces, and domain registrations, and typically begins with a cease-and-desist letter before escalating.
If You Do Business Abroad
A U.S. federal registration only protects you in the United States. For protection abroad, the Madrid Protocol, administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, lets you file a single international application through the USPTO covering any combination of the 132 countries in the Madrid System. You need a U.S. registration or pending application to use it.
The Madrid Protocol does not create one worldwide trademark. Each designated country reviews the mark under its own trademark laws and can approve or refuse it, so be ready to respond to objections country by country, sometimes with local counsel.