The Trademark Office has announced that its filing fees for certain matters will increase for the first time in three years on January 2, 2021. File your new applications and any oppositions or cancellations before January to avoid the price increase.
In setting the new fees, the Trademark Office considered the state of the US economy, the operational needs of the office and the comments and advice received during public comment period. to determine when to increase the fees. The overall strategy is to balance a reasonable and affordable fee schedule with multi-year revenue to recover the aggregate costs of maintaining the office’s trademark operations and strategic goals.
Here are examples of the fee increases going to effect for various matters (all filed electronically, filing fees are more to file on paper due to the increased operational costs):
Applications and application-related fees
Filing to be made Current Fee per class:
New Fee per class
Application with custom good/service $275 / $350
Application with standard $225 / $250
Post registration feesFiling to be made
Current Fee per classNew Fee per classSection 8 filings after five years of use$125$225New fee if goods/services deleted after filing Sec. 8-0-$250
Petitions and letters of protestFiling to be madeCurrent Fee per classNew Fee per classPetition to the Director$100$250Petition to revive an abandoned application$100$150New fee for letter of protest-0-$50*
*The Trademark Office is codifying letter of protest procedures to encourage appropriate submissions to help the office determine whether the submitted evidence supports a ground for refusal of registration. The procedures require: an itemize evidence index, no more than 10 items of evidence or 75 total pages, absent special circumstances
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board feesFiling to be madeCurrent Fee per classNew Fee per classPetition to cancel$400$600*Notice of opposition$400$600Initial 30-day extension request for opposition-0--0-Initial 90-day extension request for opposition or second 60-day extension for opposition$100$200Final 60-day extension request for opposition$200$400Ex parte appeal$200$225First request for extension of time to file an appeal brief-0--0-New fee for second and subsequent requests for an extension of time to file an appeal brief-0-$100New fee for appeal briefs in an ex parte appeal-0-$200New fee for request for oral hearings-0-$500
*$200 refund will be available for petition to cancel in default judgments if the cancellation involves only a nonuse or abandonment claim, the defendant did not appear and there were no filings other than the petition to cancel.
See here for the full final rule implementing the fee changes.