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AD Nauseam: Junk Fees Rule Crosses the Finish Line

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) biannual fee increase will go into effect on January 18, 2025. The USPTO anticipates the fee increases and the addition of new fees will significantly streamline the application process in addition to helping support the USPTO’s operating budget.

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The USPTO replaced the two application fees for Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) Plus ($250 per class) and TEAS Standard ($350 per class) with one base application fee for applications under Trademark Act Sections 1 and 44 ($350 per class). For Section 66(a) Madrid applications and subsequent designations under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the fee increased from $500 to $600 per class. Amendments to allege use and Statements of Use increased from $100 to $150 per class.

The biggest change applicants will encounter are additional fees based on the complexity and completeness of their application. Due to an inability to collect additional fees for Madrid applications, these fees only apply to applications under Sections 1 and 44. For applications deemed to have insufficient information, the USPTO will charge an additional fee of $100 per class. “Insufficient information” will result from a deficiency in any of the requirements for a base application set forth in Section 2.22(1) through (20), including information regarding the applicant, bases for filing, the digitized image of any nonstandard character marks, the field and description of the mark, transliteration and translation of wording, statements regarding the consent of living individuals, other registrations for the mark owned by the applicant, designation of a representative (for foreign applicants), and the correct classification of goods and/or services. Given the sometimes unpredictability of office actions based on the foregoing, applicants can now expect to pay additional fees with office action responses. The USPTO is counting on the new fees to encourage more careful filings by applicants with a resulting increase in examining efficiency.

This is important, as the USPTO predicts the rate of applications (after decreasing in FY 2024) will increase 4%-6% year over year over the next four years. The USPTO still blames the current delays in pendency on the historic increase in FY 2021 applications. The average first action pendency is anticipated to drop from 7.5 months in FY 2025 to 4.9 months in FY 2029. The average total pendency is anticipated to drop from 13.5 months in FY 2025 to 8.9 months in FY 2029. In addition to the hoped-for impact of the above additional fees, the USPTO anticipates increasing the number of examiners from 806 to 948 over the next four years.

The USPTO also hopes increased fees will limit unnecessarily lengthy identifications of goods and services. For using the free-form text box instead of the Trademark ID Manual to identify goods and services and for each additional group of 1,000 characters in the free-form text box, the USPTO will charge an additional fee of $200 per class.

Post-registration fees also increased. Section 9 renewal applications increased from $300 to $325 per class. Section 8 and Section 71 declarations increased from $225 to $325 per class, and Section 15 declarations increased from $200 to $250 per class. The WIPO renewal fee increased from $300 to $325.

USPTO fees for processing petitions and letters of protest increased as well. Petitions to the Director are now $400 instead of $250, Letters of Protest are $150 instead of $50 and Petitions to Revive are now $250 instead of $150.

Whether the USPTO’s hoped-for efficiencies will become reality is unknown. Practitioners and applicants will, however, see an immediate impact on how applications and renewals are filed and processed.

USPTO Trademark Fee Increases May Help Reshape Examining Efficiency

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