The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is raising many fees for trademark filings effective January 18, 2025. Many fees will increase by $50–$100 per class of goods and/or services. The USPTO will also impose surcharges on many applications filed under the Trademark Act Sections 1 (these are national applications, mostly filed by US entities) and 44 (these are applications based on foreign applications and registrations, mostly filed by foreign entities). Although many fees for international registration filings (Section 66(a)) will also rise, they are not discussed here in detail.

In light of the fee increases, if you are considering filing any trademark applications, it would be best to try to file before January 18, 2025.

Some changes will require a fresh look at the filing strategy and will make it more difficult to estimate both the fees for professional services and also the government fees. For example, up to now, it has been possible to file an application with minimal information and filing fees for just one class, but going forward, there will be surcharges for missing information and “incomplete” applications or fee payments for additional classes. Supplying missing information will now incur surcharges. For the first time, there will also be surcharges for descriptions of goods and services within a class that exceed 1,000 characters (this paragraph is about 700 characters).

Obviously, these changes will require analysis before filing in order to determine the least expensive route because the list of “incorrect” or missing information that will result in a $100 or $200 surcharge is quite extensive. We think that responding to many comments from the USPTO examining trademark attorneys will require payment of additional government fees. The list includes the following actions that will incur surcharges, among other items:

• Correct classification of goods and services and descriptions drawn from the USPTO ID Manual
• Payment of fees for all classes claimed
• If the mark includes color, statements about the color claim
• If the mark is not in standard characters and/or has design features, a written description of the mark
• If the mark includes non-English wording, an English translation of that wording
• If the mark includes non-Latin characters, a transliteration of those characters

Below is a chart outlining the major fee changes we expect to encounter:

[View source.]