The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will increase trademark fees starting Jan. 18, 2025, and patent fees starting Jan. 19, 2025. Highlights of the fee increases are provided below. The entire listings of updated filing fees can be found at:
Trademark fee increase highlights
Initial trademark applications and post-registration maintenance filings will increase by $100-$200 per class. The current filing fee structure, based on whether the application is a TEAS Plus or TEAS Standard application, will be eliminated and the USPTO will instead charge a single base application fee, per class. If the identification of goods or services is not in the Trademark ID Manual, an additional $200 surcharge fee will be charged per class. The USPTO is also implementing a surcharge fee for descriptions of goods and services that exceeds 1,000 characters. Once the description of goods or services reaches 1,000 characters, every additional 1,000 characters will incur an additional $200 surcharge fee, per class.
To save on filing fees, we can assist in drafting the identification of goods and services to conform with the descriptions in the Trademark ID Manual. If this is not a possibility due to the limitations of the Trademark ID Manual, we will inform you so you are aware of the possible surcharge fee.
Other significant trademark fee increases are associated with post-registration maintenance filings, which will see an increase of $125-$150 per class. For instance, the filing fees for a combined Sections 8 and 9 renewal is $525, per class, but will increase to $650. The filing fees for a combined Sections 8 and 15 renewal is $425 but will increase to $575, per class.
Patent fee increase highlights
Patent filing fees will increase by roughly 7.5%, although initial application filing fees will increase by about 10%. A significant addition to the USPTO patent filing fees is a new continuing application fee based on the number of years the continuing application is filed after the earliest benefit date, ranging from $2700 (undiscounted) for a filing more than six years after the earliest benefit date to $4000 (undiscounted) for a filing more than nine years after the earliest benefit date. Additionally, the fees for a Request for Continued Examination (RCE) will also increase significantly, with the first RCE fee increasing by 10% and subsequent requests increasing by 48%. The USPTO has also implemented new fees for filing Information Disclosure Statements that cumulatively contain more than 50 references ($200), more than 100 references ($500) and more than 200 references ($800).
In light of the USPTO’s upcoming fee increases, we would strongly suggest moving forward with any upcoming filings before Jan. 18, 2025, to take advantage of the lower filing fees.
