The 2025 USPTO Trademark Fee Increase: When Is It Happening?

Updated November 15 2024.

The USPTO is planning to increase most trademark filing fees in Fiscal Year 2025 (which has already started). While this newsletter’s headline might seem like a clickbait-y rhetorical question, and it partially is, I also really want to know when exactly the USPTO will raise its filing fees.

November 15 2024 update: According to a new USPTO notice, the changes are scheduled to take effect on January 18, 2025.

The most important changes to note are a $100-per-class increase for new trademark applications, a $75-per-class increase for 5-6 year (Section 8) maintenance filings, and a combined $125-per-class increase for 10-year Section 8+9 renewals (as if renewals weren’t complicated enough). The rest of the changes can be found in this spreadsheet.

Fiscal Year 2025 started October 1, and we still haven’t been given an exact date for the fee increase by the USPTO. In the budget request they submitted to Congress, they gave a date of November 23, 2024, but they made it clear that this was solely for the purpose of “estimating fee collections” and that it “may change.” Given that we’re getting pretty close to November 23 and they still haven’t announced a final date, I don’t think that’s going to end up being when the fee increase takes effect.

It’s possible, perhaps probable, that they’ll raise their fees at the same time they retire the old TEAS filing system. A fundamental part of the new fee schedule is eliminating the TEAS fee structure altogether. They’ve already launched the new system, so it seems silly to convert the existing TEAS filing system to a fundamentally different fee structure just so people can use TEAS for another month or two until it gets taken offline.

Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly when that will happen either. The Trademark Center launch website itself says TEAS will be functional until “early January 2025.”

Please let me know if I’m wrong and the USPTO has actually given us a date for the price increases or the sunsetting of the old filing system. Leaks from any USPTO insiders reading this are also welcome. I’d like to be able to plan my own price changes.

Regardless, if you want to get locked in at the old pricing for a new filing or a renewal, you should probably get started as soon as possible. I know this sounds like an infomercial, but this time it’s the USPTO being tacky, not me.