The USPTO has announced significant fee increases taking effect January 18, 2025 (for most trademarks) and January 19, 2025 (for patents), and on February 18, 2025 (for Madrid trademark filings), which will impact all trademark and patent applicants in the United States. Here’s what you need to know and how to save money by acting now:

Trademark Changes

Starting January 19, 2025, trademark applicants will face substantial fee increases across all filing types. The basic electronic trademark application fee through TEAS will increase from $250 to $350 per class – an increase of $100 per application at a minimum, for a single class application. For businesses filing in multiple classes, these increases will compound significantly.

Later costs associated with applications filed on the Intent-to-Use (ITU) basis are also increasing. The Statement of Use (SOU) and Amendment to Allege Use (AAU) fees will rise to $150 per class, which is a $50 increase over 2024 charges for an SOU filing.

Declaration and renewal requirements are also becoming more expensive, with each of i) the Section 8 Declaration of Use fee increasing $100, from $225 to $325, ii) the Section 15 Declaration of Incontestability fee increases $50, from $200 to $250, and iii) the Section 9 Application to Renew increasing $25, from $300 to $325, all on a per class basis.

The USPTO is also implementing new surcharges for applications using custom goods and services descriptions, i.e., descriptions not pulled from the Trademark ID Manual, with fees of $200 per class for using a free-form text box. This surcharge will be incurred for each group of 1,000 characters beyond the first 1,000 characters, and so for very long goods and services descriptions can be incurred multiple times.

Letters of Protest will also see a significant jump from $50 to $150. Madrid Protocol applications will also increase to $600 per class.

Patent Changes for Small and Micro Entities

Small entities (including businesses with fewer than 500 employees) and micro entities (including qualifying independent inventors) receive significant discounts on patent fees – 60% and 80% respectively. This is not changing under the 2025 fee schedule increase.

Nonetheless, taking into account the discount available for small entities, the total combined cost for filing, searching, and examining a utility patent application will increase from $664 to $800. Breaking this down:

• Basic filing fee: $140 (60% of the $350 undiscounted fee)
• Search fee: $308 (60% of the $770 undiscounted fee)
• Examination fee: $352 (60% of the $880 undiscounted fee)
• Total combined fees: $800 for small entities filing electronically

Micro entities will see their combined fees increase as well, broken down as follows:

• Basic filing fee: $70 (80% discount off the $350 undiscounted fee)
• Search fee: $154 (80% discount off the $770 undiscounted fee)
• Examination fee: $176 (80% discount off the $880 undiscounted fee)
• Total combined fees: $400 for micro entities filing electronically

The costs for each excess claim above 20 also doubles in 2025 (increasing from $40 to $80 for small entities).

Hit especially hard by these fee increases are design patent applications and continuation patent applications, which will see substantially greater costs for applicants. The total cost for filing, searching, and examining a design patent application will rise to $520 for small entities and $260 for micro entities, with later issue fees due after examination also increasing to these same amounts. This represents a significant jump from current rates.

One of the most impactful changes is the introduction of continuation application fees based on filing timing. For small entities, and for the first time in U.S. patent practice, the USPTO will charge an additional continuing application fee of $1,080 if filed more than 6 years after its earliest priority date, or $1,600 if filed more than 9 years after the earliest priority date.

Request for Continued Examination (RCE) fees are also increasing substantially, but while the first RCE fee is just seeing a modest increase to $600 for small entities, the fee for second or subsequent RCEs is rising more dramatically by over 40%, from $800 to $1,144 for small entities.

How to Save Money by Acting Now

Several strategic options can help businesses and inventors save money before the deadlines on January 18, 2025 (for trademarks) and January 19, 2025 (for patents):

Consider converting provisional patent applications to non-provisional applications earlier than the standard one-year deadline, and before January 19, 2025. This strategy can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars depending on your entity status and the number of applications.

For applications claiming priority to older applications, filing continuation, divisional, or continuation-in-part applications before January 19, 2025 will avoid the new timing-based surcharges. This is particularly crucial for applications claiming priority to applications filed several years ago.

For trademark protection, filing new applications before the deadline of January 18, 2025 will secure current lower fees. This is especially beneficial for businesses planning multiple trademark filings or applications in multiple classes. Consider filing intent-to-use applications now for marks you plan to use in the near future.

Professional Assistance Available

The intellectual property professionals at Ward Law Office specialize in helping entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses navigate these complex fee changes. We can help evaluate your IP portfolio and develop strategic filing plans before the fee increases take effect.

Feel free to contact Ward by either email at info@wardpatent.com or by calling us directly at either 419-408-5500 (Ohio) or 248-579-2197 (Michigan).

For convenience, persons with questions about these USPTO fee increases can schedule a consultation directly through Ward’s online calendar at https://calendly.com/ward-patent/60min. During this consultation, our IP professionals can review your specific situation and help you develop a customized strategy to minimize the impact of these government fee increases on your intellectual property protection plans.

For more information directly from the USPTO on these significant increases in government fees happening early in 2025, concerned trademark and patent applicants can visit the fee setting page of the USPTO website here.