USPTO Fee Schedule: Trademark Fees Explained
Trademark practitioners and trademark applicants alike incur government fees from time to time. In the United States, government fees related to trademarks are incurred with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The fee schedule is available here. I hope to clarify these fees in this post.
The USPTO organizes the fees into the following categories:
Application-related
Petition and letter of protest
Post-registration
Trial and appeal
Madrid Protocol
Service
Fastener Quality Act
General Considerations
A few high-level points will help you understand the more nuanced points below. First, with respect to most activities, the USPTO provides a fee for electronic submissions (i.e., "Electronically filed") and paper submissions (i.e., "Paper filed"). In some instances, fees for paper submissions are not listed, and more often than not, it is because they are no longer available. Second, many of the fees are listed on a "per class" basis. That means, if you file an application and identify goods or services in two or more classes, you will incur the listed fee multiple times, if applicable. For example, if you file an application on an intent-to-use basis and identify books (class 16) and t-shirts (class 25), you will pay the application fee twice (more on the application fee below), both of which will be paid when you file your application. You will pay the statement of use (SOU) fee twice (once when you submit the statement of use for the class 16 goods; once you when you submit the statement of use for the class 25 goods). If you later decide not to pursue one of the classes, you will avoid that fee if you have not paid it yet. If you need more time to start using the mark with respect to one or both classes, the USPTO will sell you a six-month extension for filing each SOU. Thus, if you start using your mark with respect to books immediately, you can avoid the extension fee for that class. But if you need an extra six months for t-shirts, you will pay the fee for class 25.
Application Related Fees
With respect to the application fee, there are currently three different fees: TEAS Standard, TEAS Plus, and 66(a) (i.e., Madrid Protocol). If you are a U.S.-based applicant, it is unlikely that 66(a) will apply to you. TEAS Standard and TEAS Plus are most common for U.S.-based applicants. Applicants save $100 per class per application when they file a TEAS Plus application instead of a TEAS Standard application. That said, be careful when filing a TEAS Plus application. The difference in cost is a result of the applicant streamlining the application for the USPTO. There are several missteps that could result in the applicant losing the $100. I anticipate a future blog post focused on the differences between the TEAS Plus and Standard applications.
With respect to application-related fees, two additional fees remain: a request to divide an application, per new application created; and an extension of time for filing a response to a pre-registration office action. A request to divide arises in two situations, in particular, both of which involve the applicant identifying several goods and services (or multiple classes). First, the applicant began using the mark with respect to some of the goods/services (or classes) but not all. The applicant wants to register the mark with respect to those goods and services. The applicant can request to divide so that the applicant obtains a registration for the mark with respect to the goods/services that are currently in use. The remaining goods/services will exist in a separate application. Second, the USPTO rejects the application with respect to some, but not all, of the goods/services. Like before, the applicant might want to advance the mark to registration for at least some of their goods/services. In both situations, the applicant wants a registration but does not want to wait for allowance of the mark with respect to all of the goods/services.
Requesting an extension of time for filing a response to a pre-registration office action is a relatively new procedure on the trademark side of the USPTO. Prior to December 2022, the USPTO gave applicants six months from the issuance of a trademark office action to submit a response. Now, applicants must respond within three months of the office action date. However, applicants can pay a small fee in exchange for extra time to respond.
Petition and Letter of Protest Fees
The next category of fees should be much less common for most applicants and practitioners. Expungement and reexamination are relatively new procedures and petition and examination fees listed with this category can arise in those proceedings.
The petition to revive an application may be filed when an applicant inadvertently abandons an application. If the deadline was not properly docketed, or the like, the applicant can pay the petition fee (along with the response to the underlying office action) and hope the USPTO grants the petition to revive.
The letter of protest is an option for trademark owners who are aware of an application that has been filed and have reasons to believe that the application should not be granted (e.g., the applied-for-mark is generic in the industry; the protestor believes it has superior rights in the mark over the applicant). The trademark owner prepares the letter and submits it to the USPTO. The objective is to notify the examiner of the issue with the application in hopes that the examiner rejects the application based on the stated issue(s).
There is more to the trademark fees than meets the eye. I hope you enjoy the first part of this multi-week post. What questions do you have regarding the USPTO's fees?
