The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) has announced increases and adjustments of certain trademark official fees, effective January 18, 2025. These changes follow a year-long comprehensive review process and have been introduced to improve efficiency, encourage accuracy, and ensure the USPTO has the necessary resources to operate. The USPTO’s final rule implementing these changes is available here.
The changes include adjustments to certain trademark application fees, intent-to-use fees, post-registration maintenance fees, and petition and letter of protest fees. Most notably, the introduction of application surcharge fees represents a potentially significant cost increase. The risk of compounding surcharge fees should strongly incentivize applicants to strictly adhere to the Trademark ID Manual and exercise careful consideration in ensuring the accuracy and completeness of their applications.
In lieu of the processing fee for failing to meet the requirements of a Trademark Electronic Application System (“TEAS”) Plus application, which will be discontinued, the USPTO will impose individual surcharges for applications under Sections 1 and 44 that either fail to meet certain requirements or require more extensive review. These surcharges will apply to applications that (1) omit required information for a base application; (2) use the free-form text box for the description of goods and services instead of selecting from the provided list; and (3) exceed 1,000 characters when electing to use the free-form text box for the description of goods or services.
Note that these surcharges do not apply to applications made under Section 66(a) (Madrid Protocol). In addition, amended identifications submitted in response to an office action will be exempt from the excess character fee.
At present, trademark applicants seeking to file electronically can select between two filing options, TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard. The new fee structure eliminates these options in favor of implementing a single base application (and standard fee) for electronic filings, with requirements similar to the current TEAS Plus application.
The new rules also implement a number of additional prosecution and maintenance fee adjustments, set forth below:
