How Much Does a Trademark Cost in 2026? USPTO Fees, Attorney Costs, and Renewals

You picked the perfect name, bought the domain, printed the packaging — and then someone files a trademark application for a confusingly similar brand. Every dollar you spent building that name is now at risk, and the fix you skipped would have started at $350. But here is the part most first-time filers learn too late: that $350 USPTO filing fee is non-refundable. File in the wrong class, describe your goods badly, or pick a name the examining attorney considers descriptive, and the government keeps your money while you start over.

Trademark pricing looks simple from a distance — one government fee, one application — but the real bill depends on how many classes of goods and services you claim, whether you search before you file, who prepares the application, and what the USPTO examining attorney thinks of it. A clean single-class DIY filing can cost $350 all-in. A multi-class application that draws a substantive office action and needs an attorney can clear $4,000 before you see a registration certificate. This guide walks through every layer so you can budget the real number, not the advertised one.

The Short Answer: What Most Small Businesses Actually Pay​

For planning purposes, nearly every small-business trademark falls into one of three cost bands:

Those bands assume one class and no serious trouble during examination. Each additional class adds another $350 in government fees at minimum, and a substantive refusal from the examining attorney can add $500 to $2,500 in professional fees to answer. The rest of this guide explains where each dollar goes and how to avoid paying the same fee twice.

USPTO Government Fees: The $350-Per-Class Baseline​

Since January 18, 2025, the only way to file a US trademark application is electronically through the USPTO's Trademark Center. The old TEAS Plus/TEAS Standard two-tier system is gone, and with it every fee quote built on the old $250 tier. Under the current schedule, the base application fee is $350 per class of goods or services for the standard filing bases most businesses use.

The math is straightforward:

• 1 class costs $350
• 2 classes cost $700
• 3 classes cost $1,050

That base fee covers the USPTO's review of your application — not approval, not monitoring, and not lifetime protection. You are paying for examination, and the fee stays paid whether the outcome is a registration certificate or a final refusal. That non-refundable structure is the single best argument for getting the application right the first time.

The Surcharges That Turn $350 Into $650​

The base fee assumes a clean application. Stray from the USPTO's preferred format and per-class surcharges stack on top:

A sloppy two-class application with custom descriptions can therefore cost $1,100 in government fees alone instead of $700. The practical lesson: pick your goods-and-services wording from the Trademark ID Manual whenever it fits, and complete every required field before you submit. Both surcharges are entirely avoidable.

Intent-to-Use Filers Pay More Later​

If you file before you are actually selling — an intent-to-use application — two more fees wait down the road. After the USPTO approves your mark, you must file a Statement of Use with a specimen showing the mark in commerce, at $150 per class. If you need more time, each six-month extension request costs $125 per class, up to five extensions. An intent-to-use applicant in one class who needs a year of extra runway therefore pays $350 + $150 + $250 in government fees before registration issues. Budget for the full runway, not just the filing day.

How Trademark Classes Drive the Bill​

USPTO fees are charged per class, not per mark, so the number of classes is the biggest lever on your total. The 45 international classes divide goods (classes 1–34) from services (classes 35–45), and you pay for every class your goods or services touch.

A coffee shop selling brewed coffee under its name needs one class. The same shop selling packaged beans online, branded merchandise, and a franchised training program can easily span four. Most small businesses land at one to three classes.

Three rules keep class costs under control:

1. File for what you sell now, not what you might sell someday. Speculative classes multiply every fee — filing, statements of use, maintenance — for protection you cannot enforce until you actually use the mark there.
2. Use ID Manual wording. The pre-approved descriptions avoid the $200 free-form surcharge and sail through examination faster because examining attorneys see them every day.
3. Remember the name-and-logo question. A word mark and a logo are separate marks. One application covering both as a combined lockup protects only the combination; protecting each element on its own means two applications and two sets of fees. Most businesses start with the word mark, which covers the name in any font or styling, and add the logo later.

Clearance Search Costs: $0 to $1,000 Before You File a Thing​

Filing without searching is how $350 fees go to die. The USPTO refuses applications that are likely to be confused with existing registrations, and a refusal for likelihood of confusion is the hardest and most expensive kind to answer. Search costs scale with thoroughness:

• Free: the USPTO database. Search existing applications and registrations yourself at no cost. This catches direct hits but misses phonetic equivalents, design similarities, and unregistered common-law marks.
• $0–$150: AI screening tools. Automated clearance reports flag obvious conflicts cheaply and are a reasonable first filter for a tight budget.
• $300–$1,000: comprehensive search. Professional search firms check federal and state registrations, business-name databases, domain records, and common-law sources. Attorney-reviewed search opinions, which add a registrability judgment to the raw results, run toward the top of this range and beyond.

A comprehensive search feels expensive until you compare it to the alternative: a refused application, a second filing fee, and an office action response billed at attorney rates. If you hire an attorney for the filing, the search is often bundled into the flat fee — ask before paying for it twice.

DIY vs. Filing Service vs. Attorney​

DIY: $350 and your own judgment​

Filing yourself through Trademark Center costs exactly the government fees. For a distinctive, made-up word in a single class with ID Manual wording — think a coined brand name for a SaaS product — DIY can work. The risk is everything you do not know: descriptiveness refusals, specimen rejections, classification errors, and missed deadlines. None of the fees are refundable, so a DIY mistake usually means paying the government twice.

Online filing services: $500–$1,200 all-in​

Filing services sit between DIY and counsel: guided questionnaires, ID Manual matching, deadline reminders, and sometimes a basic conflict check, plus the government fees passed through. They reduce formatting errors but generally do not provide legal analysis or respond to substantive refusals. Read the fine print for what is excluded — office action responses, statements of use, and maintenance filings are the classic add-ons — and confirm the advertised price includes the $350-per-class government fee rather than sitting on top of it.

Trademark attorney: $1,500–$3,500 for a standard filing​

A trademark attorney's flat fee for a straightforward application typically runs $1,500 to $3,500 in professional fees on top of government fees, often including a clearance search and opinion. Office action responses are usually billed separately: $500 to $1,000 for procedural issues (disclaimers, description amendments, specimen fixes) and $1,500 to $2,500 or more for substantive refusals like likelihood of confusion or mere descriptiveness.

When does the attorney beat DIY? When any of these are true: your mark describes what you sell, a crowded field means close calls on confusion, you are filing in multiple classes, you need an intent-to-use strategy with extensions, or the brand is valuable enough that a refusal would cost more than counsel. A $2,000 flat fee that produces a registered mark on the first try is cheaper than two $350 filings plus a $2,500 confusion response.

Maintenance Fees: The Bill That Arrives in Year 5​

Registration is not the end of the spending. Federal trademarks last indefinitely, but only if you file maintenance documents and keep using the mark. Under the current fee schedule:

• Between years 5 and 6: Section 8 declaration of continued use, $325 per class.
• Every 10 years: combined Section 8 declaration and Section 9 renewal, $650 per class ($325 + $325).
• Grace period: filing within six months after the deadline adds $100 per class per section.
• Optional Section 15 declaration of incontestability after five years of continuous use: $250 per class.

A two-class registration therefore costs $650 at the five-year mark and $1,300 every ten years after that, before any professional fees for preparing the filings. Miss the grace period entirely and the registration is canceled — you start over at $350 per class plus a new search. Put the deadlines in your calendar the day the certificate issues, because the USPTO does not send reminders.

State trademark registration, typically $50 to $100 per class with the secretary of state, is sometimes pitched as a cheaper alternative. It is not a substitute: it protects only within that state and carries none of the federal benefits, including nationwide priority, the ability to record with Customs, and access to federal court. For a business that sells across state lines, budget for the federal registration.

The Hidden Costs Nobody Puts in the Headline​

• Oppositions and cancellations. After approval, your mark publishes for 30 days during which anyone can oppose. Defending an opposition before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board starts in the low thousands and climbs fast.
• Monitoring and enforcement. The USPTO does not police your mark. Watch services that alert you to conflicting new filings run a few hundred dollars a year; cease-and-desist letters and enforcement are extra.
• International filings. A US registration protects only the US. A Madrid Protocol application extending protection abroad adds WIPO fees plus each country's individual fees — budget per country, not per mark.
• Scam solicitations. After you file, expect official-looking invoices from private companies for "registration" or "publication" services you never ordered. The USPTO warns applicants about these routinely; no legitimate government fee arrives as an unsolicited paper invoice demanding immediate payment.
• Rebrands. The most expensive trademark cost is abandoning a name you cannot protect after you have built a business on it. A search and filing before launch is the cheapest insurance in this entire guide.

Track Trademark Spending Like the Investment It Is​

Trademark costs arrive in drips over years — a search fee in March, a filing fee in June, a statement of use the next year, a maintenance filing in year five — and drips are easy to lose. Create a dedicated expense category for intellectual property so every fee, search invoice, and attorney bill lands in one place. You will want the full history when you renew, when you value the business, and when your tax preparer asks which costs were for marks you created versus marks you bought, since the tax treatment differs.

Registration and maintenance costs for a mark you develop yourself are generally deductible as ordinary business expenses in the year paid, while trademarks acquired with a business purchase are typically amortized over 15 years. Either way, the deduction depends on records you kept years earlier. File the USPTO receipts with the application serial number noted, and keep attorney invoices itemized by mark and matter.

Keep Your Brand Investment Organized From Filing to Renewal​

Protecting your brand is a multi-year financial commitment, from the first $350 filing fee through the $650-per-class renewal a decade later. Maintaining clear records of every fee, deadline, and invoice is what keeps that investment enforceable instead of accidentally abandoned. Beancount.io provides plain-text accounting that gives you complete transparency and control over your financial data — no black boxes, no vendor lock-in. Get started for free and see why developers and finance professionals are switching to plain-text accounting.