Effective January 2, 2021 – just about three weeks from now – filing a trademark in the U.S. will be more expensive due to the increase of government official fees. Here’s more, all maintenance filings (e.g., renewal of a registration) and TTAB proceedings will be more expensive as well.
Below are the numbers and the trademark examining trend:
TEAS Standard Application: from $275 to now $350 per class
TEAS Plus Application: from $225 to now $250 per class; failing to meet TEAS Plus requirement fee down from $125 per class to now $100 per class
In a TEAS Plus trademark application, an applicant can only use certain approved terms to describe their products and services. We can see the office is encouraging TEAS Plus filings. This could potentially save manpower and reduce application prosecution time in the office. TEAS Plus filings, on the other hand, leave applicants with much less flexibility in describing and capturing the full scope of their goods and services.
Maintenance fees (Section 8 or 71 declaration): from $125 to now $225 per class
More expensive to maintain and renew the registrations for sure.
Deleting goods and services from a registration after maintenance paperwork is filed but not yet accepted: from no fee to now $250 per class
This big increase may be due to the newly implemented random audit procedure. When a registration is under audit during a maintenance filing, often the applicant needs to delete certain goods and services due to non-use of the mark.
Petition to Revive Abandoned Application: from $100 to now $150 per filing
Petition to the Director: from $100 to now $250 per filing
Appeal to an examining attorney’s refusal will cost 1.5 times more. An examining attorney’s decision now has more weight in the prosecution due to the burden of cost.
Letter of Protest: from no fee to now $50 per application
If you own a trademark registration and see another new application trying to register a similar name, you can file a Letter of Protest as an attempt to block this said new application. This procedure is now codified and will be effective as of January 2, 2021. Along with the letter, the office now requires an itemized evidence index and no more than 10 items of evidence or 75 total pages.
Here’s my favorite - TTAB proceedings.
Petition to Cancel: from $400 to now $600 per class
Notice of Opposition: from $400 to now $600 per class
Extensions (to file an Opposition): from $100 to now $200 per application; final 60-day extension from $200 to now $400 per application
Ex Parte Appeal filings: from $200 to now $225 per class; extension to file an appeal brief now charges a $100 fee; appeal brief now charges a $200 fee and oral hearings now charges $500 fee.
Anything that cannot be done by computer will cost more starting January 2021. Government attorneys' time is valuable. If you have any questions regarding your trademarks and trade dress, now is the time to reach out.
Sincerely yours,
Silvia Sun, Esq.
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