Registering a trademark starts at $350 a class, before extras

The workload

Filing a federal trademark application requires choosing how many international classes of goods or services the mark will cover, since the USPTO prices almost every trademark fee per class. A single mark used for one class of goods, a clothing line's shirts, is one filing; the same brand's added service, such as custom printing, is a second class, priced separately. The USPTO's own fee-information page states this per-class structure directly. The agency is also mid-transition on where an application gets filed: its own apply-online hub states several legacy Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) forms, including the most commonly used maintenance and renewal forms, are being retired 1 October 2026 in favor of the newer Trademark Center interface, though the fees below apply regardless of which system files them.

What the documents show

The USPTO's page states, verified, that as of a fee rule effective 18 January 2025, the base filing fee for each class in a Section 1 or Section 44 application is $350 if the application meets the requirements. The rule added surcharges for applications that skip required detail: $100 per class for insufficient information, $200 per class for using a free-text box instead of the agency's ID Manual, and $200 per class for each additional 1,000-character block of free text beyond the first. This replaced the earlier system pricing TEAS Plus lower than TEAS Standard; the current structure penalizes incomplete or nonstandard applications directly, regardless of which form filed them.

The operating cost

A single-class application meeting the base requirements costs $350, verified, paid once at filing. An intent-to-use applicant later owes $150 per class for the statement of use once the mark is in commerce, or $125 per class for an extension if not. Registration is not free to keep, either: a five-year declaration of continued use costs $325 per class, and a combined ten-year renewal with that declaration costs $650 per class, both recurring. None of these figures include an attorney's fee, which the schedule does not set.

The stop condition

The USPTO states a registration lapses, is canceled, or an extension of protection is invalidated if a required maintenance filing is not made before its grace period ends, which itself carries an added fee once entered. Read against the base filing fee, the obligation does not stop at registration; it recurs on a roughly five-year cycle for as long as the mark is meant to stay registered, and the condition that ends it, stated by the agency, is simply not filing the next required declaration.

• How many classes does the filing need, since each multiplies the base fee and every later maintenance fee?
• Does the application use the USPTO's own ID Manual language, avoiding the $200-per-class free-text surcharge?
• Is there a budget for the five-year declaration and ten-year renewal fees, recurring costs a first-time filer can easily overlook?

The federal fee schedule is a real, dated number the agency is accountable for; what it excludes, attorney time, the risk of a refusal, or a later opposition, is exactly what makes it the floor of the cost rather than the total.