Fees
What a US trademark actually costs
Three separate costs go into a US trademark, and conflating them is how people end up feeling misled. Here is each one, separately.
The three costs
USPTO government fees are set by the USPTO and charged per class of goods or services. They are the same whoever files for you. Further government fees fall due later if you filed on an intent-to-use basis, and again at each maintenance and renewal deadline.
We do not print government fee figures on this page. The USPTO adjusts its fee schedule periodically, and a number frozen on a web page is a number that will eventually be wrong in a way that costs you. The current schedule is published by the USPTO, and every quote we give states the government fees in force on the day we give it.
Attorney fees are ours, and they are flat. You are told the number before the work starts, and that is the number you pay. No hourly billing, no time recorded against your file, no invoice that arrives larger than expected.
Contingent costs are the things that may or may not happen — a refusal to answer, an opposition to defend, an amendment to negotiate. Nobody can tell you at the outset whether these will arise. What we can tell you is the price of each if it does, which is what the table below is for. An open meter is not a quote.
Attorney fees
Fees are quoted in writing before any work begins, on the flat basis described above. Tell us what you need and you will have the number the same week — including the price of the things that might happen later, not only the filing.
| Service | Attorney fee |
|---|---|
| Trademark search and clearance opinionBefore you file. Tells you whether the mark is worth applying for, and says so if it is not. | On request |
| US trademark application — first classPreparation and filing, including choosing the filing basis and drafting the description of goods and services. | On request |
| Each additional classCharged per class of goods or services added to the same application. | On request |
| Appointing counsel on an existing applicationWhere you filed already and the USPTO now requires a US-licensed attorney of record. | On request |
| Office action response — formalities or description of goodsAmendments, classification issues, and the requirement to appoint counsel. | On request |
| Office action response — substantive refusalLikelihood of confusion, descriptiveness or specimen refusals. Quoted after reading the refusal. | On request |
| Statement of use / extension requestFor applications filed on an intent-to-use basis, once you begin selling in US commerce. | On request |
| Declaration of use between years five and sixThe maintenance filing that keeps a registration alive. Missing it cancels the registration. | On request |
| Ten-year renewalCombined declaration of use and renewal application. | On request |
Patent matters are prosecuted by the registered US patent practitioner we work with and are quoted separately — see the 2026 patent counsel requirement.
What is included, and what is not
A filing fee covers preparing and filing the application: choosing the filing basis, drafting the description of goods and services, reviewing your specimen if you have one, and filing correctly.
It does not cover what happens if the examiner refuses the mark. That is quoted separately and honestly, because the alternative — building a hypothetical refusal into everyone’s filing fee — means the applicants with clean marks subsidise the ones without.
We will also tell you when not to file. If a search turns up a blocking mark, you hear that before you have paid for an application that cannot succeed. An attorney who has never talked a client out of filing is not searching properly.