Trademark registration fees at the USPTO start at $350 per class of goods or services, and most applicants spend between $350 and $750 in government fees to get a mark through to registration.1United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Fee Information Keeping the registration alive costs more over time: a single-class mark carries at least $1,325 in USPTO fees across its first ten years, and that figure climbs quickly if you file in multiple classes, hit complications during examination, or hire an attorney.
What the Base Application Costs
The USPTO restructured its fees in January 2025, dropping the old two-tier TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard system in favor of a flat $350 per class for electronic filings.2United States Patent and Trademark Office. Summary of 2025 Trademark Fee Changes3eCFR. 37 CFR 2.6 – Trademark Fees4United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Center – A New Way to Apply to Register Your Trademark
The per-class structure matters. The international Nice Classification system sorts every product and service into 45 categories, and you pay $350 for each one you file in. A clothing brand filing only in Class 25 (apparel) pays $350. Add jewelry in Class 14 and the total becomes $700. Every additional class adds another $350.
Custom Descriptions Add $200 Per Class
Your application has to describe the goods or services you sell. The USPTO maintains a Trademark ID Manual of pre-approved descriptions, and picking one keeps you at the $350 base fee. Writing your own description instead triggers a $200 surcharge per class.1United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Fee Information If that custom description runs past 1,000 characters, each additional block of 1,000 characters costs another $200 per class affected.3eCFR. 37 CFR 2.6 – Trademark Fees A separate $100-per-class fee applies when the USPTO decides the application contains insufficient information about the goods or services.
Browse the ID Manual before filing. If a pre-approved description fits your business, you save $200 per class and give the examiner less to question.
Intent-to-Use Filings Cost More Overall
If you’re not selling under the mark yet, you can file on an intent-to-use basis for the same $350 per class. You’ll owe additional fees later to prove actual use in commerce before registration can issue.5United States Patent and Trademark Office. How Much Does It Cost?
When you’re ready, you file either a Statement of Use or an Amendment to Allege Use, depending on where the application sits in examination. Either one costs $150 per class.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule Need more time? A six-month extension runs $125 per class, and the USPTO allows up to five of them.1United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Fee Information Miss the deadline without filing an extension and the application goes abandoned.
A single-class intent-to-use filing that needs one extension before use begins costs $625 total: $350 to apply, $125 for the extension, and $150 for the Statement of Use. That’s nearly double a straightforward use-based filing, so this path makes sense only when you genuinely need to reserve the mark before launch.
Fees That Come Up During Examination
After filing, a USPTO examining attorney reviews the application and may issue an office action flagging problems: likelihood of confusion with an existing mark, a description that needs rewording, a specimen that doesn’t show proper trademark use. You get three months to respond, extendable by another three months for a fee.7United States Patent and Trademark Office. Response Time Period There’s no government fee for the response itself, but missing the deadline causes abandonment.
If the application does go abandoned, a petition to revive costs $250 electronically or $350 on paper.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule Revival isn’t automatic. You need to show the delay was unintentional.
Opposition and Cancellation
Once the examining attorney approves the mark, it’s published for opposition, and third parties have 30 days to challenge. Filing a Notice of Opposition at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board costs $600 per class electronically, and a petition to cancel an existing registration carries the same $600-per-class fee.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule These are adversarial proceedings, essentially mini-trials, and legal costs on both sides can run far beyond the filing fees themselves.
A cheaper alternative for flagging a problematic pending application is a letter of protest, which lets a third party submit evidence to the examiner informally. The fee is $150.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule It doesn’t open a formal proceeding; the examiner simply decides whether to consider the evidence.
Maintenance and Renewal Fees
Registration isn’t the end of the fees. Federal trademarks require ongoing proof of use, and missing the deadlines means cancellation.
Between Years Five and Six
Between the fifth and sixth anniversaries of registration, you must file a Section 8 Declaration of Use at $325 per class electronically.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule Miss the window and a six-month grace period is available with an extra $100 per class surcharge.1United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Fee Information
You can also file a Section 15 Declaration of Incontestability at the same time for $250 per class, or $575 per class when combined with the Section 8 filing.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule Incontestability eliminates several grounds competitors could otherwise use to challenge the registration.
Every Ten Years
At the ten-year anniversary and every ten years after, the registration must be renewed. That requires both a Section 9 renewal application ($325 per class) and another Section 8 declaration ($325 per class), totaling $650 per class filed electronically as a combined submission.1United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Fee Information The six-month grace period applies here too, again with a $100-per-class surcharge. Paper filings cost significantly more, with the Section 9 portion alone running $525.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule
Adding it up for a single-class registration: $350 to apply, $325 at year five or six, and $650 at year ten comes to $1,325 in USPTO fees for a decade of protection, before any professional help.
Recording an Ownership Transfer
When a trademark changes hands through a sale, merger, or other transfer, the new owner should record the assignment with the USPTO. Recording costs $40 for the first mark in the document and $25 for each additional mark included in the same filing.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule Recording is technically voluntary, but an unrecorded transfer may not hold up against a later purchaser who checks the registry and sees the old owner’s name.
International Filings Through the Madrid Protocol
To extend protection abroad, U.S. trademark owners can file through the Madrid Protocol, which lets a single application cover multiple countries. The USPTO charges a certification fee of $100 per class when the international application is based on a single U.S. application or registration, or $150 per class when based on more than one.6United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule Foreign applicants designating the U.S. through Madrid pay $600 per class to the USPTO.3eCFR. 37 CFR 2.6 – Trademark Fees
Those are just the USPTO’s charges. The World Intellectual Property Organization charges its own basic fee, and each designated country may add individual or supplementary fees. Total costs for a Madrid filing covering several countries can easily reach several thousand dollars before attorney fees.
Search and Attorney Costs on Top
Government fees are only part of the expense. Before filing, many applicants pay for a professional clearance search to check whether their desired mark conflicts with existing registrations. Searches typically run $300 to $600 and cover federal registrations, state filings, and common-law usage. Having an attorney review the results and assess the odds of approval generally adds $500 to $2,000, depending on how many potential conflicts need analysis.
Hiring a trademark attorney for the application itself adds to the budget but often pays for itself in fewer office actions and fewer abandoned filings. For a straightforward single-class application with no complications, total professional fees usually fall between $800 and $2,000 on top of the government charges.
State Registration as a Cheaper Alternative
Federal isn’t the only option. Every state runs its own trademark filing system, with fees typically ranging from $10 to $70. State registration protects only within that state’s borders and doesn’t carry the same legal presumptions as a federal registration. Most businesses pursuing a state filing do so either as a stopgap while a federal application is pending or because their commercial activity is genuinely limited to one state. For any brand operating across state lines, federal registration under the Lanham Act is the stronger and more cost-effective route.8Legal Information Institute. Lanham Act