This article is for general informational purposes and is not legal advice; all USPTO fee figures reflect the schedule in effect for 2026 following the January 18, 2025 restructure. Consult a licensed trademark attorney for guidance on your specific mark.
TL;DR — Quick Verdict
- The USPTO base application fee is $350 per class in 2026 — but write your own goods description instead of using the ID Manual and a single-class filing jumps to $550 per class.
- Do-it-yourself out-of-pocket for a clean single-class mark: $350. With an attorney handling search and filing: roughly $850–$2,000.
- Attorney flat fees for a straightforward single-class filing run $500–$1,500 on top of the government fee; a clearance search adds $300–$800.
- An Office Action response is the budget-killer at $300–$1,500, and a meaningful share of applications draw at least one — the exact rate varies sharply by source (see below).
- DIY vs attorney verdict: file it yourself only if your mark is a fanciful word used in commerce in one class; hire counsel for anything descriptive, multi-class, or intent-to-use.
File a federal trademark yourself and the government wants $350. File it wrong — a custom goods description, a missing specimen, an intent-to-use basis you didn’t budget for — and that number can triple before an examining attorney ever reads your application. The gap between the sticker price and the real cost is where thousands of small-business owners lose money every year.
On January 18, 2025, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office executed its biggest fee restructure in more than a decade, retiring the old TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard tiers and closing the underlying TEAS system to new applications. Filing now happens through the USPTO’s Trademark Center. This report breaks down the complete 2026 cost picture: every government fee and surcharge, what trademark attorneys actually charge, the math on DIY versus hiring counsel, and the mistakes that quietly add hundreds of dollars. Services like LegalZoom and Trademark Engine advertise low headline prices, but as you’ll see, the number that matters is total cost to registration — not the fee on the landing page.
The 2026 USPTO Fee Schedule: What You Actually Pay the Government
Start with the number everyone quotes: $350 per class. That is the base electronic application fee, and it assumes a “clean” filing — you selected your goods and services from the USPTO’s Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual (the ID Manual), kept the description under 1,000 characters, and completed every required field. Miss any of those conditions and surcharges stack on top, per class.
Two surcharges catch most first-time filers. Write your own free-form goods description instead of pulling pre-approved language from the ID Manual, and the USPTO adds $200 per class. Leave out required information — a disclaimer, a translation, dates of use — and that’s another $100 per class. A single-class application with a custom description therefore costs $550, not $350.
Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Fee Information (verify at uspto.gov).
These are non-refundable. File and get refused, and the government keeps the money. That single fact reframes every downstream decision in this article.
What Determines Your Real Cost: A Three-Scenario Model
The headline fee tells you almost nothing about what you’ll spend, because trademark cost is driven by three variables: how many classes your goods and services span, whether you’re already using the mark, and whether the examining attorney pushes back. Walk through three realistic filers to see the spread.
Scenario 1 — The clean single-class DIY filer. A bakery owner registers “SUNFROST” for baked goods, already sold in commerce, using ID Manual language for Class 30. One class, clean application, no attorney. Total: $350. This is the floor, and relatively few filers actually hit it.
Scenario 2 — The intent-to-use founder. A software startup files “LEDGERWORKS” before launch under an intent-to-use basis in one class. Base fee $350, then a Statement of Use at $150 once the product ships, plus one six-month extension at $125 while they finish the build. Government total: $625 — and that’s before a single attorney hour. Founders weighing this against other early expenses should read our breakdown of the true cost of hiring a first employee to see where trademark spend sits in a launch budget.
Scenario 3 — The two-class filer who draws an Office Action. A consumer-products company registers a logo across Class 25 (apparel) and Class 21 (housewares), writes a custom description, and gets a descriptiveness refusal. Government fees: ($350 + $200 custom) × 2 classes = $1,100. Add an attorney-drafted Office Action response at the midpoint of $300–$1,500, and total out-of-pocket clears $2,000. Same “trademark,” six times the floor cost.
The variable most people underestimate is the Office Action. It carries no government fee to receive, but responding to one is where legal bills balloon.
Trademark Attorney Costs in 2026: The Fee Ranges That Matter
Attorneys don’t bill trademark filings the way they bill litigation. For routine registration work, the standard model is a flat fee — and any lawyer quoting hourly rates for a standard application is charging you for inefficiency. Here’s where the market lands.
Source: ContractsCounsel trademark fee survey and aggregated 2026 firm data (verify at contractscounsel.com). Attorney fees are separate from and additional to USPTO fees.
ContractsCounsel reports an average flat fee of roughly $1,120 to register a trademark based on recent completed projects, with government filing fees billed separately. Regional flat-fee attorneys often land at the low end — some advertise $500 for a search plus single-class filing — while national IP firms bill several times that for identical USPTO work. The wide $500–$1,500 filing range reflects that geography and firm tier, not the difficulty of the paperwork.
Bundling matters. Some firms roll non-substantive Office Action responses into the base flat fee; others treat every response as a fresh engagement. Ask before you sign. The same “what’s included” scrutiny you’d apply when comparing an NDA attorney cost versus a template applies here — the quoted number and the total number are rarely the same.
DIY Filing vs. Hiring an Attorney: Which Is Better for a Small Business?
The USPTO accepts self-filed applications, and for a narrow set of marks that’s the rational choice. For everything else, the math tilts toward counsel — not because filing is hard, but because fixing a botched filing is expensive and the fees are non-refundable.
DIY wins on cost when the mark is inherently distinctive (a coined word like “KODAK,” not a descriptive phrase like “COLD BREW COFFEE”), already in use in commerce, and confined to a single class with ID Manual language available. In that lane, you pay $350 and you’re done. The risk is low because there’s little for an examiner to refuse.
Attorneys earn their fee on the two things DIY filers can’t easily do: a real clearance search and a persuasive Office Action response. A clearance search catches conflicting marks before you spend $350 on an application that gets refused under Section 2(d) likelihood of confusion — the most common substantive refusal. And when a refusal lands, an attorney who has handled hundreds of responses knows which arguments and prior cases move an examiner. Note too that foreign-domiciled applicants are required by the USPTO to be represented by a U.S.-licensed attorney; for them, DIY isn’t an option.
Verdict
File it yourself only if your mark is a fanciful or arbitrary word, already used in commerce, in one class, with a matching ID Manual description — that’s a genuine $350 job. For anything descriptive, multi-class, intent-to-use, or where a competitor might own something similar, hire a flat-fee attorney and budget $850–$2,000 total. The clearance search alone often pays for itself by killing a doomed application before you fund it.
What Most People Get Wrong About Trademark Costs
Four mistakes account for the majority of blown trademark budgets. Each one is avoidable if you know it exists before you file.
Mistake 1 — Writing your own goods description. Consequence: an automatic $200-per-class surcharge and a higher chance of an ID-requirement Office Action. Correct action: use the USPTO ID Manual’s pre-approved language wherever it fits your goods, and pay the $350 base rate instead of $550.
Mistake 2 — Skipping the clearance search. Consequence: you fund a $350+ application that gets refused for conflicting with an existing mark, and the fee is non-refundable. Correct action: run a search (DIY on the USPTO’s own database, or a $300–$800 attorney opinion) before you spend a dollar on filing.
Mistake 3 — Filing intent-to-use without budgeting the follow-on fees. Consequence: a surprise $150 Statement of Use plus $125-per-extension bills you didn’t plan for, and abandonment if you miss the deadline. Correct action: if the mark is already in use, file on a use basis and skip the extra fees entirely.
Mistake 4 — Missing an Office Action or maintenance deadline. Consequence: abandonment, then a $250 Petition to Revive — or, at renewal, a $100-per-class grace-period surcharge on top of the maintenance fee. Correct action: calendar every deadline the day you receive it, and respond well before the six-month window closes. Businesses that treat legal deadlines casually often learn the hard way; the same discipline gap shows up in partnership dispute legal fees and business lawsuit attorney costs.
The Lifetime Cost: Maintenance Fees Most Filers Forget
Registration isn’t a one-time purchase. A federal trademark can last indefinitely, but only if you keep filing — and paying — at set intervals. Budget for these when you calculate whether a mark is worth registering at all.
Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Definitions for Maintaining a Trademark Registration (verify at uspto.gov). Fees are per class.
Run the 10-year math on a single-class mark filed cleanly: $350 to register, $325 Section 8 between years 5 and 6, then a combined Section 8 and 9 renewal at $650 between years 9 and 10 — roughly $1,325 in government fees per class over the first decade, before any attorney help. Multi-class portfolios multiply that. When you’re deciding whether a brand name justifies protection, that lifetime figure belongs in the same spreadsheet as your marketing budget benchmarks and how you’re pricing your product with margin and overhead.
Is Registering a Trademark Worth It? Conditional Logic
A federal registration isn’t free protection — it’s an investment that pays off under specific conditions. Here’s the decision framework.
It’s clearly worth it if you’re building a brand you intend to scale, you sell across state lines or online, you’ve invested in a name or logo that competitors could copy, or you plan to license or franchise. Federal registration gives you nationwide priority, the right to use the ® symbol, a legal presumption of ownership, and access to federal court — advantages that matter the moment someone infringes. For anyone weighing a franchise versus independent path, a registered mark is often a prerequisite to franchising at all.
It’s marginal if you operate a single local storefront with no expansion plans, your name is highly descriptive and hard to register, or you’re pre-revenue and unsure the brand will survive. In those cases, common-law rights from actually using the mark may cover you for now, and the $350-plus lifetime cost may outrun the benefit.
It’s premature if you haven’t validated the business. Spending $850–$2,000 to trademark a name for a venture that may pivot is capital better spent elsewhere — on the same growth-operations line items you’d weigh when comparing an employee versus contractor or scoping a business website build. Register once the brand is real and worth defending.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to trademark a name in 2026?
The USPTO base application fee is $350 per class for a clean electronic filing through Trademark Center. A do-it-yourself single-class registration can cost exactly $350, while filing with a trademark attorney typically runs $850–$2,000 total once you add flat attorney fees of $500–$1,500 and, often, a clearance search at $300–$800. Custom goods descriptions and additional classes push the total higher.
Do I really need a trademark attorney, or can I file myself?
The USPTO permits self-filing for U.S.-based applicants, and it’s reasonable for a distinctive, single-class mark already used in commerce. Attorneys add the most value on clearance searches and Office Action responses ($300–$1,500), where errors are costly and USPTO fees are non-refundable. Foreign-domiciled applicants are required by the USPTO to use a U.S.-licensed attorney.
What is an Office Action and how much does it cost?
An Office Action is an examining attorney’s formal objection or refusal. The USPTO charges no fee to receive one, but an attorney-drafted response typically costs $300–$1,500. Reported rates of applications receiving at least one Office Action vary widely across sources — from roughly 25% in some USPTO-cited years to 80–90% in others — so treat it as a likely expense, not a rare one, and search before you file.
What are the ongoing costs after registration?
Trademarks require maintenance filings. A Section 8 Declaration of Use costs $325 per class between years 5 and 6, and a combined Section 8 and 9 renewal costs $650 per class between years 9 and 10, then every decade after. Filing late triggers a $100-per-class grace-period surcharge, per the USPTO. Miss the grace period and the registration is cancelled.
How We Researched This Article
Every fee figure in this report was drawn from primary and named institutional sources and verified before publication. The government fee schedule — base application fee, per-class surcharges, Statement of Use and extension fees, Petition to Revive, and Section 8, 9, and 15 maintenance fees — was taken directly from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s published fee information and maintenance definitions, reflecting the schedule that took effect with the January 18, 2025 fee restructure and remains in force in 2026. We confirmed the elimination of the TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard tiers and the transition to Trademark Center against multiple law-firm analyses of the USPTO’s rulemaking.
Attorney fee ranges are modeled from aggregated market data rather than measured from a single firm: the clearance-search, filing, additional-class, and Office Action response ranges reflect published 2026 fee surveys and firm-disclosed flat fees, cross-referenced across several sources to establish defensible low and high bounds. These are ranges, not point figures, because attorney pricing varies materially by geography and firm tier. The three cost scenarios are illustrative calculations built from the verified government fees plus midpoint attorney estimates; they are modeled, not drawn from any individual case.
One figure resisted a single clean answer: the share of applications that receive at least one Office Action. Named sources report values ranging from roughly 25% to 80–90% depending on year, filing tier, and how “Office Action” is counted, so we report the range and its variance rather than a false-precision point estimate. Key primary and institutional references include the USPTO Trademark Fee Information, the USPTO trademark maintenance resources, and the ContractsCounsel trademark fee data. Research last conducted August 2026. All figures were verified against named primary sources before publication.