Changes in the cost of trademark registration in the US (USPTO) from 2025

The year 2025 marks an important turning point in the trademark registration process in the US as the costs involved have experienced significant fluctuations. The explosion of e-commerce and the growing need for brand protection have prompted intellectual property offices to adjust fees. While this poses many challenges for small and medium-sized businesses, it also motivates businesses to invest more seriously in building and protecting their brands. Businesses need to carefully weigh the costs and benefits when making a trademark registration decision, and learn about government support programs to minimize the financial burden. Viet An Law would like to inform customers of the new cost when registering a trademark in the US from 2025 through the article below.

Reasons for changing the cost of trademark registration in the US from 2025

According to the notice of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), it is as follows:

“Every two years, we re-evaluate fees, expenses and revenues to ensure that we can recover all operating costs associated with the trademark. Based on our most recent evaluation, we conclude that fee adjustments are necessary to provide the Trademark Office with adequate resources to effectively manage the U.S. trademark system. Adjusted fees are set based on the following four main factors:

• Driving Innovation: Increasing fees will allow us to invest in new technologies, improve the efficiency of the registration process, and improve the user experience.
• Fully reflect costs: The fee adjustment is intended to ensure that the trademark service fee accurately reflects the total cost of operation. This helps to maintain the quality of service and avoid budget shortfalls.
• Management Optimization: The adjustment of fees will help us recruit highly qualified employees, apply advanced technology, and improve the operational efficiency of the trademark system.
• Diversification of services: We are committed to providing a wide range of application processing options to meet the diverse needs of our clients. The fee adjustment will help us support these options and ensure timely processing of applications.”

Specifically, the change in trademark registration fees is as follows: the department will increase some regular fees, apply new fees and stop collecting 4 types of old fees.

Cost of registering a trademark in the US from 2025

Elimination of two forms of fees when applying

The new U.S. trademark registration fee rule will eliminate the two previous forms of filing fees, TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard, and instead a single basic fee that applies to all applications under Sections 1 and 44 of the Trademark Act. In addition to this basic fee, depending on the complexity and completeness of the application, you may have to pay an additional fee. However, it is expected that the majority of applications only need to pay a basic fee. For applications under the Madrid system (Section 66(a)), the fee will be adjusted to a level equivalent to the average fee paid by direct applicants.

Applying additional fees for incomplete trademark applications

From now on, the USPTO will apply additional fees for trademark applications that are incomplete or have overly complicated descriptions of goods and services. The purpose of this is to encourage applicants to provide complete and accurate information from the outset, making the review process faster. Specifically, if your application lacks information or describes goods or services using freehand text that is too long and complicated instead of using an available support tool, you will have to pay an additional fee. For applications under the Madrid system (Section 66(a)), the collection of additional fees has not yet been implemented due to WIPO technical limitations. However, in the future, when WIPO can assist with the collection of additional fees, the USPTO will consider applying the same regulation.

Increase in fees for procedures for maintaining trademark registration

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced an increase in fees for trademark registration maintenance procedures. This decision was made to balance operating costs, compensate for the increase in dossier processing costs and adapt to changes in the demand for trademark registration. Specifically, fees for procedures such as renewal of registration, declaration of trademark use will increase. The new fee will apply to all applications, including international applications under the Madrid system. The new fee schedule is as follows:

Increase in fees for petition and complaint procedures

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has decided to increase fees for petition and complaint proceedings. The adjustment of this fee is aimed at compensating for the costs incurred in the process of processing these types of documents.

Fee increase with amended procedure for declaration of use and declaration of use