Authors: Sabrina Larson and Katherine Gianelli
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has issued its Final Rule with adjusted filing fees at all stages of trademark application and maintenance filings. The fee increases, which take effect on January 18, 2025, aim to provide sufficient financial resources to facilitate the effective administration of the trademark systems, while a new framework for application filing fees with surcharges aims to incentivize standard applications, decrease office actions during the examination of applications, and meet a long-term goal of shortening the prosecution timeline—but may require some adjustments to the preparation of applications and make budgeting for new applications more complex.
Background and Summary
Since 2021, the PTO has conducted a biennial review of fees, costs, and revenues. This latest review has concluded that fee adjustments are necessary to provide the agency with sufficient financial resources to facilitate the effective administration of the U.S. trademark system. The PTO has forecasted higher-than-expected inflation in the broader U.S. economy, coupled with an increased need for trademark services. As a result, the PTO’s goal with this change is to set a fee schedule that generates sufficient multiyear revenue to recover the aggregate costs of maintaining the PTO trademark services.
The fee changes align with the PTO’s four key fee setting policy factors to (1) promote innovation strategies, (2) align fees with the full cost of trademark services, (3) set fees to facilitate the effective administration of the trademark system, and (4) offer application processing options.
Below is a summary of the changes, followed by a chart of key fee increases for electronic filings.
Key Changes to Application Fees
The PTO is changing its initial filing fee framework with the goal of incentivizing more complete and timely filings and improving the prosecution of applications. To that end, it has introduced a standard base fee per class, with three types of surcharges for applications that may require more in-depth examination and likely office actions:
- Single base, per class application fee: The new fees include a single base of $350 per class for all applications (replacing the current system of $250 for standard descriptions and $350 for all other applications).
- Surcharge for non-standard description: This new fee of $200 per class will apply where an applicant enters a description of goods or services using the free-form text box instead of using pre-approved descriptions from the USPTO’s Acceptable Goods and Services Manual (ID Manual).[1]
- Surcharge for incomplete information: There will be a new fee of $100 per class for applications that do not include all of the information required for the specific filing.[2]
- Surcharge for long descriptions: Non-standard, free-form descriptions of goods or services in a single class that exceed 1,000 characters, including punctuation and spaces, will incur a fee of $200 for each additional 1,000 characters. This surcharge will not apply if all descriptions are selected from the ID Manual.
Madrid Protocol Applications and Registration Maintenance
Applications filed via the Madrid Protocol under section 66(a) will not be subject to the above new surcharges.[3] Instead, the existing flat application fee for Madrid applications, including subsequent designations, will increase from $500 to $600 per class, as paid in Swiss francs to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The renewal fee filed with WIPO will increase from $300 to $350. These fee increases go into effect on February 18, 2025.
The Section 71 declaration fee, applicable to owners of registered extension of protection under the Madrid Protocol, is increasing from $225 to $325.
Statement of Use Increases
The PTO is increasing the fee to file evidence of use, both as a Statement of Use and Amendment to Allege Use, for the first time since 2022. The Final Rule states that the examination time for evidence of use has increased due to “increased submission of questionable specimens.” The fee for both filings is increasing from $100 per class to $150 per class.
Maintenance Filing Increases
Post-registration maintenance fees are increasing across the board. While the percentage of trademark registrants choosing to maintain their registrations has declined, costs to process maintenance filings have increased due to factors including post-registration audits and new review procedures to address potential fraud.
Shortening Prosecution Timeline
The PTO also notes it is committed to improving trademark application pendency. As recent filers know, the current time from filing to a first office action is 7-8 months. This is 1-2 months after the priority foreign filing deadline, causing uncertainty at that deadline as to the status of the pending base U.S. application. The PTO describes the current timeline as a “trademark pendency challenge,” as a result of several years of surges in applications culminating in an “unprecedented, year-long influx” during the 2021 fiscal year that has resulted in a significant increase in unexamined applications. The PTO’s projected goal for application pendency to first office action for fiscal year 2025 remains the same as 2024 at 7.5 months, dropping to 6.3 months in 2026, 5.9 months in 2027, 5.5 months in 2028, and 4.9 months in 2029.
