Clients still ask whether it is in their best interest to register a trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The traditional short answer is still: yes, if at all possible, you should register your trademarks.
In January 2025 the USPTO threw out TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard, installed a single “base application,” and started charging extra when the application is incomplete or the goods are typed in free-form. If you bookmarked the 2019 version of this post, the dollar figures on it are antiques.
Registration is still not required. Common-law rights still arise from actual use. The first party to use a mark in commerce, or to file a bona fide intent-to-use application that later matures, still has the better claim in most fights. A registration on the Principal Register still does the useful things it did in 2019: nationwide constructive notice, a presumption of validity and ownership, the right to use the ® symbol, access to the federal courts on a clearer path, and a Customs recordation if you later need one.
None of that is free.
What the USPTO now charges to file
As of the January 18, 2025 fee rule – still the schedule in force in 2026 – an electronic application is:
- $350 per class for a base application that meets the completeness rules and uses identifications taken from the USPTO ID Manual.
- +$100 per class if required information is missing at filing (the “insufficient information” surcharge).
- +$200 per class if any identification is entered in the free-form text box instead of the ID Manual.
- +$200 per class for each additional 1,000 characters of identification beyond the first 1,000.
A clean one-class filing that uses Manual language and is complete on day one is $350 to the Office. A sloppy one-class filing can be $650 before an examiner has even looked at it. A two-class filing doubles those numbers. Paper filing is $850 per class. Do not file on paper.
Madrid/Section 66(a) applications coming in through WIPO are $600 per class.
Intent-to-use applications add a later bill. A statement of use or amendment to allege use is $150 per class electronically. Extensions of time to file a statement of use remain $125 per class.
What you will spend before you file
Clearance search. The USPTO’s public search system is free and is not enough. A focused knock-out plus attorney review for a single word mark is often in the $300-$600 range. A full U.S. search that includes federal, state, and common-law sources still runs roughly $700-$1,200 once you add professional review. Skipping the search to “save” money is how people fund later cease-and-desist letters and, occasionally, lawsuits this blog writes about.
Attorney time to prepare and file. For a straightforward one-class application, budget $500-$1,200 on top of the USPTO fee, more if the identification is odd, the mark is a logo that needs a description, or there are prior registrations to explain. Office actions are extra. Most of the attorney time after filing is spent answering the first office action, not filling in the form.
A realistic all-in number for a clean one-class use-based filing in 2026, search included, is about $1,200-$2,500. That is higher than the “approximately $800-$1,000” figure in the 2019 post, and it should be. The Office got more expensive. So did everyone else.
What you will spend to keep it
Federal registrations do not die of old age, but they do die of missed maintenance.
- Section 8 declaration of use (years 5-6): $325 per class
- Section 9 renewal (years 9-10, and every ten years after): $325 per class
- Section 15 declaration of incontestability (optional, after five years of continuous use): $250 per class
A combined Section 8 and 15 is $575 per class. A combined Section 8 and 9 at the ten-year mark is $650 per class. Miss the window and you are filing a new application and starting over.
A few things the fee schedule will not tell you
Using the ID Manual is how you stay at $350. That is the Office’s way of saying it would like fewer homemade descriptions of “business services.” If your goods are not in the Manual, pay the $200 and write the identification correctly anyway. A cheap, wrong identification is more expensive than a surcharge.
An Indiana state trademark filing is a different animal and a different price. It is not a substitute for a federal registration if you sell across state lines, online, or anywhere the other party can find a lawyer. It can still be useful locally. It is not nationwide constructive notice.
Intent-to-use is not a loophole for skipping the search. You still have to use the mark, and you still have to pay for the statement of use.
So – should you register?
If the mark is a real business asset and you can budget the filing, yes. The 2019 conclusion still holds: economies rise and fall, and trademark rights can continue indefinitely. The difference in 2026 is that the Office will charge you more for an incomplete form and much more to keep a registration alive at year six and year ten.
Do the search. Use the Manual when you can. File the maintenance on time. And if someone has already sent you a letter about the name, that is a different post.
Kenan L. Farrell, KLF Legal, Indianapolis
