Filing a trademark application with the USPTO costs $350 per class of goods or services as the base fee — but that number tells only part of the story. Depending on how many classes you need, how you describe your goods and services, and whether your application draws an office action, the total cost to register a trademark ranges from $350 in USPTO fees alone to well over $5,000 when professional representation and prosecution are factored in.
The fee structure changed significantly on January 18, 2025, when the USPTO replaced its two-tier TEAS Plus/TEAS Standard system with a single base fee and a new set of surcharges. Understanding how those surcharges apply — and how class selection strategy affects your total — is what separates a well-budgeted trademark filing from an expensive surprise.
At IP Boutique Law, we handle trademark registration with the analytical approach of a former USPTO examiner: not just filling out forms, but structuring applications to avoid the surcharges and substantive refusals that inflate costs.
Last updated: March 2026
What you actually pay to file a trademark application
The USPTO bases almost every trademark fee on the number of classes of goods or services in your application. Each class is a separate fee, and those fees add up fast.
The base fee: $350 per class
For applications filed through the USPTO’s Trademark Center — which replaced the legacy TEAS system in mid-2025 — the standard electronic filing fee is $350 per class when you select your goods and services descriptions from the USPTO’s pre-approved Trademark ID Manual. This is the floor, not the ceiling.
A single-class application filed cleanly: $350. Two classes: $700. Three: $1,050. The math is straightforward, but the decisions behind class selection are not — which is where most applicants run into trouble.
When the fee jumps to $550 per class
If you describe your goods or services using free-form text instead of the pre-approved identifications in the ID Manual, the USPTO adds a $200 surcharge per class. That takes a standard $350 filing to $550 per class — before any other fees apply.
This surcharge was introduced with the 2025 fee changes to encourage applicants to use pre-approved descriptions, which examining attorneys can review more efficiently. The practical consequence: an applicant who writes their own goods description to be more “precise” often pays more and creates description problems that generate office actions anyway. A trademark attorney familiar with the ID Manual can find pre-approved language that accurately covers your goods without triggering the surcharge, while keeping the description narrow enough to avoid a §2(e)(1) descriptiveness refusal.
Additional filing surcharges
The 2025 trademark fee structure introduced other charges that catch applicants off guard:
| Fee item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Base application fee (Section 1 or 44), per class | $350 |
| Free-form description surcharge, per class | $200 |
| Insufficient information surcharge, per class | $100 |
| Excess characters (each 1,000 over first 1,000), per class | $200 |
| Statement of Use (intent-to-use applications), per class | $150 |
| Extension of time to file Statement of Use, per class | $125 |
| Section 8 declaration of use (years 5–6), per class | $325 |
| Section 8/9 renewal (years 9–10 and every 10 years after), per class | $650 |
| Petition to revive abandoned application | $250 |
Source: USPTO trademark fee information, effective January 18, 2025.
The insufficient information surcharge ($100/class) applies when the application is missing required elements — applicant citizenship, contact information, or the verified statement. These are errors that careful preparation prevents entirely. The excess characters surcharge ($200 per additional 1,000 characters) penalizes descriptions that are unnecessarily long, another reason to work from ID Manual language rather than drafting from scratch.
Schedule a consultation to discuss your trademark filing costs
The cost of trademark classes — and how to pick the right ones
Class selection is the single biggest lever in your total trademark cost. Every additional class adds $350 minimum to your upfront filing fee, plus all subsequent maintenance costs for the life of the registration. Getting it wrong in either direction creates problems: too few classes and your brand is exposed in areas you actually operate; too many and you’ve paid for protection the USPTO may challenge and that your business doesn’t need.
How the Nice Classification system works
The Nice Classification system divides all goods and services into 45 international classes — Classes 1 through 34 cover goods, Classes 35 through 45 cover services. Every trademark application must assign goods or services to the appropriate class, and the USPTO charges a separate base fee per class.
The system is not always intuitive. Software products, for example, often need coverage in both Class 9 (downloadable software) and Class 42 (software as a service or cloud-based software) — two classes, two fees. A clothing brand that also sells online through its own e-commerce store may need Class 25 (clothing) and Class 35 (retail store services), even though it’s the same business. A food brand adding restaurant services needs both Class 30 (food products) and Class 43 (restaurant services).
The USPTO’s ID Manual is the authoritative tool for confirming which class a specific good or service falls into and what pre-approved description language applies.
What examiners look for — and what inflates costs
Trademark examining attorneys review goods and services descriptions for two things: accuracy and scope. Descriptions that are too broad get an office action requiring clarification. Descriptions that don’t match what’s shown in the specimen get refused. Both cost money to respond to — and if the application is abandoned because a response deadline is missed, you lose the filing fees entirely.
Having spent years examining trademark applications at the USPTO, we know how examiners read goods and services descriptions. The most common source of unnecessary cost is an applicant trying to cover everything they might do in the future rather than what they’re actually doing in commerce now. Examiners push back on speculative or overbroad identifications — and responding to that office action costs more than filing with accurate descriptions from the start.
Real examples by business type
A restaurant opening its first location typically needs one class: Class 43 (restaurant and food service). Filing fee: $350. A clothing brand selling direct-to-consumer online needs Class 25 (clothing) and likely Class 35 (online retail store services): $700. A software company with both a downloadable app and a subscription-based web platform typically needs Class 9 and Class 42: $700. A multi-product consumer goods brand expanding into licensing may need four or five classes: $1,400–$1,750 in USPTO fees before a single attorney hour.
Discuss whether your trademark needs multiple classes
Attorney fees for trademark registration
USPTO fees are government charges that apply regardless of how you file. Attorney fees are separate — and they reflect the legal work that determines whether your application succeeds.
What IP Boutique Law’s trademark registration covers
Our trademark registration services are priced at $2,000–$4,000, depending on the complexity of the mark and the number of classes. That range covers:
- Professional clearance search before any application is prepared — reviewing the USPTO database and the TMEP (Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure) criteria an examiner will apply, not just running a keyword search
- Identification of goods and services using ID Manual language to avoid the $200 free-form surcharge
- Selection and review of the filing basis (Section 1(a) use-in-commerce vs. Section 1(b) intent-to-use)
- Specimen review for Section 1(a) filings — confirming it meets examining attorney standards before submission, not after refusal
- Full application preparation and filing through Trademark Center
- Status monitoring through examination
We work on a flat-fee basis, not hourly billing. You know your total professional cost before we begin.
What drives fees toward the higher end
A single-class application for a distinctive mark in a clear space — a fanciful or arbitrary mark with no conflicts in the search results — lands closer to the lower end of that range. Fees increase when the clearance search reveals conflicts that require legal analysis to evaluate, when the mark itself raises distinctiveness concerns under §2(e)(1) (descriptiveness) that require a strategy discussion before filing, or when multi-class coverage requires more extensive ID Manual research to structure identifications correctly.
An experienced former USPTO examiner knows exactly what threshold an examiner applies when evaluating a mark for descriptiveness or likelihood of confusion. That knowledge shapes how we draft the application — not just what we file, but how we frame the mark and its associated goods to minimize the arguments an examiner could raise.
A word on office action response costs
Office action responses are not included in most flat-fee trademark packages and represent a significant potential cost. At traditional firms billing hourly, a single likelihood-of-confusion refusal under §2(d) can cost $1,500–$3,500 to respond to — and over 60% of applications receive at least one office action during examination. A substantive refusal requiring evidence of acquired distinctiveness or a side-by-side comparison analysis runs toward the higher end.
We discuss this possibility during consultation so clients have a realistic picture of the total investment before filing.
The costs most guides miss
Intent-to-use applications — additional fees
If you file under Section 1(b) because your trademark is not yet in commercial use, registration requires one additional step: filing a Statement of Use with the USPTO once you begin using the mark. That costs $150 per class. If you need more time, you can request up to five six-month extensions at $125 per class each — meaning a mark that takes 30 additional months to launch adds $625 per class in extension fees alone, on top of the Statement of Use.
For a two-class intent-to-use application with two extension requests, that’s an additional $550 in USPTO fees before the Statement of Use itself. Planning the filing basis against your actual launch timeline matters.
Maintenance filings to keep your trademark alive
Registration is not a one-time cost. The USPTO requires maintenance filings at specific intervals to keep a trademark active:
Between the fifth and sixth year after registration, you must file a Section 8 Declaration of Continued Use at $325 per class. Between the ninth and tenth year, and every ten years after that, you must file a combined Section 8/9 renewal at $650 per class. Missing either deadline — even by one day after the grace period — results in cancellation of the registration.
For a single-class trademark: $325 at year five, $650 at year ten, $650 every ten years after. For a two-class trademark: $650 at year five, $1,300 at year ten. These are predictable costs that should factor into your initial trademark budget.
What the total trademark registration cost looks like in practice
The numbers above combine into scenarios that reflect most applicants’ situations.
| Cost item | Scenario A: Simple filing | Scenario B: Complex filing |
|---|---|---|
| Application type | 1 class, use-in-commerce | 2 classes, intent-to-use |
| Filing description | ID Manual | ID Manual |
| USPTO base fee | $350 | $700 |
| Free-form surcharge | $0 | $0 |
| Statement of Use | N/A | $300 (2 classes × $150) |
| Extension of time (×1) | N/A | $250 (2 classes × $125) |
| Attorney fees (IP Boutique Law) | $2,000–$2,500 | $3,000–$4,000 |
| Total estimated investment | $2,350–$2,850 | $4,250–$5,250 |
Office action responses, if needed, add $1,500–$3,500 per substantive refusal at traditional hourly rates. On a flat-fee basis, discuss this possibility with your attorney during consultation.
For a complete walkthrough of the filing process itself — what to prepare, how to complete each step in Trademark Center, and what happens after submission — see our trademark filing process guide.
Frequently asked questions about trademark registration costs
The USPTO base fee is $350 per class of goods or services, charged at the time of filing. Most businesses register in one to three classes. With professional representation, total costs typically range from $2,000 to $5,000 or more depending on classes needed, filing basis, and whether the application draws an office action. Fees are non-refundable if the mark is refused.
You need one class for each distinct category of goods or services you sell under the mark. A clothing brand selling only apparel needs one class. The same brand adding e-commerce retail services needs two. A software company with both a downloadable product and a subscription web service often needs two classes. Registering more classes than your actual commercial activity supports wastes money and may generate office actions.
No. The USPTO does not refund application fees, even if the mark is refused after examination. Filing fees pay for the examination process, not for registration. This is one reason a thorough clearance search and well-structured application matter before you submit — an unresolved conflict or a deficient specimen costs you the filing fee plus whatever you spend to refile.
U.S.-based applicants are not required to hire an attorney — but the USPTO’s own data shows that applications filed with attorney representation have significantly higher success rates than those filed without. The primary cost of going without representation is not the filing fee itself; it’s the higher probability of receiving office actions that require paid responses, or a refusal that requires starting over.
From filing to an examining attorney’s review currently takes 8–10 months. If the application passes examination without office actions and clears the 30-day publication period without opposition, registration issues shortly after. Total timeline for an uncontested use-in-commerce application: 12–18 months. Intent-to-use applications add the time needed to begin commercial use and file the Statement of Use.
Missing the Section 8 declaration window (years 5–6) or the Section 9 renewal window (years 9–10) results in cancellation of the registration. The USPTO provides a six-month grace period for each, with a $100 per-class grace period surcharge. After that window closes, the registration is gone and a new application must be filed — with no guarantee the mark will register again.
IP Boutique Law is a patent and intellectual property firm in Washington, D.C. with 25+ years of USPTO examiner experience. Our team handles patent drafting, prosecution, trademark registration, design patents, provisional applications, ex parte reexamination, and patent reissue across chemical, biochemical, electrical, and mechanical fields. We serve inventors and companies in the U.S. and internationally, bringing insider examiner knowledge to every stage of the patent process.
Reviewed by Carlos López, patent attorney and former USPTO examiner with 25+ years of IP experience.