The United States Patent and Trademark Office (the “PTO”) will update its trademark fee schedule effective January 18, 2025. This update not only increases certain fees, it adds new kinds of fees for trademark applications filed directly with the PTO. Brand owners with plans to file new applications, maintain registrations, or otherwise make certain kinds of filings with the PTO may want to consider making those filings prior to January 18, 2025, in order to take advantage of the existing, lower fees while that is still possible. Those unable to file prior to that date may want to take note of the new kinds of fees the PTO will impose on trademark applications filed directly with the PTO because they could affect filing strategy.

Below is a chart showing the current fees and new fees effective January 18, 2025. Following that is a discussion of the new types of fees the PTO will be imposing on certain trademark applications filed directly with the PTO (which are highlighted in yellow in the chart).

Perhaps the most significant fee changes are those associated with new trademark applications filed on a Section 1 or 44 (use, intent-to-use, or foreign registration) basis directly with the PTO (as opposed to trademark applications filed under the Madrid Protocol). While the PTO will continue to charge $350 per class in a trademark application, certain additional fees per class may apply depending on the circumstances and that could raise the fee to as much as $850 per class. Each of these additional fees is addressed in turn below.

Fees for Creating a Customized Description of Goods and Services

The PTO will charge an additional $200 per class for applicants who choose to draft their own identification of goods and services rather than using a pre-approved identification of goods or services selected from the Trademark ID Manual.

The Trademark ID Manual can often be useful for providing pre-approved descriptions for common goods and services, but it is not an exhaustive list. Unsurprisingly, it often does not include descriptions for specialized, highly technical, or cutting edge goods and services. Thus, applicants offering these kinds of goods and services may find themselves paying the additional fee more often than other applicants.

Applicants who claim priority back to a foreign application and/or who want to base their U.S. trademark application on a foreign registration may also find themselves paying this additional fee more often than other applicants, at least if they choose to retain the full description of goods and services. Claiming priority to a foreign application or basing a US application on a foreign registration requires the applicant to confine the U.S. application to the scope of the foreign application or registration. The easiest way to do that is to simply use the same identification of goods and services that appears in the foreign application or registration. Often, such descriptions will not happen to match what appears in the Trademark ID Manual even if they are acceptable descriptions of the goods and services. Therefore, applicants may find themselves choosing whether to keep the full description and pay an additional fee, keeping only clauses that happen to coincide with those in the Trademark ID Manual, or trying to rephrase certain descriptions to use what appears in the Trademark ID Manual while still staying within the scope of the foreign application or registration if that is possible.

Fees for Descriptions Exceeding 1,000 Characters in Length

The PTO will impose a new fee for lengthy identifications of goods and services. If the identification of goods or services exceeds 1,000 characters and does not use pre-approved descriptions from the Trademark ID Manual, the PTO will charge an additional $200 for every subsequent group of 1,000 characters per affected class. This fee does not apply if the applicant selected pre-approved descriptions from the Trademark ID Manual. Additionally, the fee should not be charged if the character limit is exceeded only after amendments to the identification of goods and services filed in response to an office action.

Applicants affected by this fee are those whose descriptions tend to be long because of the nature of goods and services they provide, because of the number of goods and services they provide, or because of a practice to include varied descriptions of goods and services they provide. Applicants may have to weigh whether it is worth the protection obtained through registration to pay the additional fee or whether it is better to save the $200 and delete certain clauses or shorten certain phrases in an application.

Fees for Insufficient Information

Finally, the PTO will charge a new fee of $100 per class for applications that lack sufficient information. This fee essentially requires that all trademark applicants provide upfront the information that under the current system only applicants who filed TeasPlus applications were obligated to provide upfront. Much of the information required in these categories is information that many applicants already provide as a matter of course (e.g., the applicant’s name and legal entity, a digital image of the mark if it is not in standard characters). However, there are a few categories of information that could prove tricky. For example, the PTO requires a translation of non-English wording in the mark. There are times when an applicant believes it has coined a term and later discovers the term has a meaning in another language that may be unfamiliar to the applicant. Failing to provide a translation in such a circumstance could result in an unexpected imposition of this fee. Additionally, the PTO will charge this fee if the applicant chooses to file the declaration supporting the application after the application is filed. Similarly, the PTO will charge this fee if an applicant does not provide all information required for all the filing bases listed in the application. For example, if a US trademark application is based in part on a foreign registration, a copy of the foreign registration certificate will need to be filed with the application if that basis is claimed at the time the application is filed.

The impact of these new fees remains to be seen, of course. At a minimum, applicants should consult with their trademark attorney to give some thought to whether it is possible to reasonably describe the goods and services they offer using pre-approved descriptions found in the Trademark ID Manual, whether they can live with shorter descriptions, and if they can gather all the information and documentation associated with their application prior to filing. In some cases, it will still be necessary or desirable to use a customized and lengthy identification of goods and services or to get an application on file before all the requested information can be gathered. Hopefully it will be possible for applicants to limit those occasions to applications for their most important marks.

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¹Only fees for electronic filings are covered in this article. No fees for paper filings appear in this chart.
²These include trademark applications based on use, based on an intent-to-use, and claiming priority or based on a foreign registration.
³These are trademark applications filed with WIPO and requesting an extension of protection into the US.
⁴The increased fee on Madrid applications will apply for applications received on or after February 18, 2025.