Effective January 18, 2025, the USPTO will be raising some fees, issuing some surcharges, and doing away with its TEAS PLUS system. This will result in less application flexibility for trademark applicants, but, according to the USPTO, should help reduce the Examiner review pendency (now at 7-8 months) and help with overall effectiveness of the trademark system.
The following is a summary of the highlights and lowlights of the new fees and surcharges. For more information visit the USPTO’s official fee changes page here: https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/fees-payment-information/summary-2025-trademark-fee-changes
New Surcharges for Incomplete Applications
For section 1 and 44 applicants.
Insufficient information (Sections 1 and 44 only), e.g., no signature, improper address, etc.: $100 per class.
Custom goods/services identifications, e.g., using free form instead of the preformatted list in the ID MANUAL: $200 per class.
Additional fee for characters beyond 1,000: $200 per class.
Application Fee Adjustments
The USPTO replaces the previous TEAS Plus ($250) and TEAS Standard ($350) fees with a single base application fee of $350 per class. Section 66 Madrid Protocol applications will see an increase of $100 for US fees and subsequent designations ($500-$600).
Intent-to-Use Filings
Fees for Amendments to Allege Use (AAU) and Statements of Use (SOU) are updated to reflect the rising costs of processing and combating questionable specimens:
AAU and SOU fees: Increased from $100 to $150 per class.
Post-Registration Maintenance Fees
Section 8 Declaration: Increase from $225 to $325 per class.
Section 15 Declaration: Increase from $200 to $250 per class.
Section 9 (Registration Renewal): Increase from $300 to $325 per class.
Section 71 Declaration (for foreign registrations): Increase from $225 to $325 per class.
Petitions and Letters of Protest
Fees for petitions and letters of protest increase to better recover administrative costs:
Petition to the Director: From $250 to $400.
Petition to revive an application: From $150 to $250.
Letter of protest: From $50 to $150.
Special thanks to Gabriella Fernandez for all of her assistance in drafting this article.
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