Official fees and agency fees for U.S. trademark registration: In 2026, Attorney Li Yuming discusses the reasonable range, and which fees are mandatory official charges.

Direct answer: The official fees for U.S. trademark registration (charged by the USPTO) consist of only two items—the application fee (TEAS Plus at $250 per class, TEAS Standard at $350 per class) and post-registration maintenance fees (Section 8 at $225 per class, Section 15 at $200 per class). Attorney fees, on the other hand, vary widely depending on the lawyer and the number of classes, typically ranging from $800 to $2,500 for a single class. The total budget for a single class is approximately $1,000 to $3,000, with multiple classes stacking on a per-class basis. The following breaks down where every dollar goes to help you judge whether a quote is reasonable.

Exactly which fees the USPTO charges you, you can't escape a single one.

The USPTO's fee schedule is public, and anyone can look it up on the official website. At the trademark application stage, the base filing fee is charged per class: TEAS Plus is $250 per class, and TEAS Standard is $350 per class. The difference is that TEAS Plus requires you to use the USPTO's pre-approved goods/services descriptions and does not allow you to write your own; TEAS Standard allows free-form descriptions but costs more.

Many clients ask the first time they encounter this: Can I just pay $250? Yes, but only if your goods description fully complies with the USPTO's Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual. Once the examiner finds the description unclear, an office action will be issued, and not only will you have to revise it, but you may also be required to pay an additional $100 per class. In practice, we generally recommend that unless your product is very standard (such as pure clothing or pure coffee), it's more worry-free to just use TEAS Standard.

After successful registration, there are two maintenance fees you must remember: the Section 8 declaration (in years 5–6) at $225 per class, and the Section 15 incontestability declaration (which can be filed at the same time) at $200 per class. At the time of renewal in years 9–10, you will pay the Section 8 fee again plus the renewal fee, currently $525 per class. These fees are adjusted by the USPTO from time to time, and in 2026 they will still follow the current standards.

Agency fees range from $800 to $2,500—so where exactly does the price difference come from?

Agency fees have no statutory standard and are fully market-driven. The quotes we see range from $800 to $2,500, per class. The price difference mainly comes from three factors: the depth of the search, the number of office action responses included, and whether the attorney holds U.S. practice qualifications.

Cheap quotes usually cover only a basic search (or even no search at all), with no support after the application is filed, and they charge an additional $500–$1,500 if an office action is issued. More expensive quotes include a full prior trademark search (covering the USPTO Principal Register, Supplemental Register, and common-law use evidence), as well as at least one office action response. In practice, we generally recommend that clients choose a package that includes a search and one response, because the rate of office actions in U.S. trademark prosecution is not low, especially for descriptiveness refusals and refusals based on similar marks.

If you need to handle multiple classes of applications, the agency fee is usually stacked by class, but there is a discount starting from the second class. For example, the first class might be $1,800, and the second class might be $1,200. The specifics depend on the lawyer's pricing strategy. Note: Foreign applicants must be represented by a U.S.-licensed attorney. This is a hard requirement under 37 C.F.R. §2.11, so your agency fee will necessarily include the cost of collaborating with a U.S. attorney.

For cross-border intellectual property services, please refer to our U.S. and EU intellectual property legal services pages to learn about our team structure and processes.

The response period is only 3 months; it can be extended, but it will cost money.

After the USPTO issues an Office Action, the response deadline is 3 months from the issuance date. You can request an extension, up to a maximum of 6 months, but extension fees are not cheap: $125 for a 30-day extension, $250 for 60 days, $400 for 90 days, $500 for 120 days, and $700 for 150 days. These are official fees, and your attorney will charge additional service fees.

Many clients procrastinate when they first receive one, thinking there's still time. But the quality of a response to a USPTO office action directly affects the registration success rate, and scrambling to find a lawyer at the last minute often means higher legal fees. We generally recommend starting preparation for the response within two weeks of receiving the office action, leaving enough time for evidence and arguments.

If the examination opinion involves a trademark similarity rejection, the response is more difficult and may require submitting a letter of consent, a coexistence agreement, or an argument demonstrating trademark differences. The agency fee for such responses typically ranges from $800 to $2,000, depending on the complexity.

Post-registration maintenance fees—many people get tripped up by Section 8.

Trademark registration success is not the end point. In years 5-6, you must submit a Section 8 declaration of use to prove the trademark is still in commercial use. The fee is $225 per class, plus attorney fees typically $300-600. If you miss this deadline, the trademark will be actively revoked by the USPTO. In practice, we have seen many clients miss notifications because they changed email addresses or agents, and by the time they found out, the trademark was already dead.

Section 15 declarations are not mandatory, but filing one is recommended. It can make your trademark "incontestable" five years after registration, making it very difficult for others to challenge you based on prior use. The fee is $200 per class, and it is usually filed together with Section 8, with only a small increase in attorney fees.

At the 9th-10th year renewal, you need to submit Section 8 again and pay the renewal fee, currently $525 per class. If you miss it, there is a 6-month grace period, but an additional $100 surcharge is required during the grace period. It is advisable to set reminders on your calendar for these deadlines, or entrust a lawyer to monitor them.

If the United States is designated in Madrid, will the fees be different?

When designating the United States through the Madrid System, the official fee is not USD 250/350, but rather USD 357 per class (black-and-white drawing) or USD 407 per class (color drawing). This is the USPTO's separate fee standard for Madrid designations of the United States. In addition, there are WIPO basic fees and handling fees. When everything is added up, it is not necessarily cheaper than filing directly with the USPTO, and after a Madrid designation of the United States, the USPTO will still conduct substantive examination and may issue an office action, with the same 3-month response deadline.

Many clients encountering this for the first time assume that designating the US through the Madrid System is more convenient, but the subsequent maintenance (Section 8/15) is still unavoidable. If your primary market is the US, filing directly with the USPTO is often more controllable. If you are pursuing a multi-country strategy, Madrid can save some initial management costs. For specific choices, please refer to our intellectual property legal services for other countries.

The pitfalls of low-cost agencies are usually buried in these three places.

Some quotes in the market are as low as $500 all-inclusive, and you need to be especially careful with these. First, they may not include a search and simply file directly, resulting in a high risk of rejection due to similar trademarks. Second, they may not include responses to office actions, and if a rejection occurs, they will charge you another $1,000. Third, they may use a non-U.S.-licensed attorney to file, which could render the application invalid. The USPTO's representation requirement for foreign applicants is mandatory; 37 C.F.R. §2.11 requires representation by a U.S.-licensed attorney.

We generally advise clients to clarify three things before signing a contract: whether prior trademark searches are included, whether at least one office action response is included, and whether the attorney has U.S. practice qualifications. These three questions can filter out most unreliable quotes.

Also, the official fees are fixed, and no agent can "reduce" them. If anyone tells you the official fees can be discounted, it's basically a scam. You can check each fee yourself on the USPTO's official fee schedule.

When making a budget for 2026, a reasonable range for a single category is $1,000–$3,000.

Adding the official fees and agency fees together, the total budget for a single-class U.S. trademark registration is roughly as follows: TEAS Plus filing fee of $250 + agency fee of $800-$2,500 = $1,050-$2,750. If you choose TEAS Standard, add another $100. If an Office Action is issued and an extension is needed, add another $125-$700 in official extension fees and $800-$2,000 in agency response fees. In the 5th-6th year after registration, the official fees for Section 8 plus Section 15 total $425 per class, with agency fees of $300-$600. For the handling approach for the U.S. and EU, you can refer toIntellectual property legal services in the United States and the European Union..

So, for a full 10-year cycle, the total cost for a single class of trademark may range from $2,000 to $5,000. Quotes below $1,000 either come with reduced services or involve hidden fees later on. Anything above $5,000 is not cost-effective unless your trademark involves complex opposition or litigation.

If you are planning to enter the U.S. market, we recommend conducting a comprehensive trademark search first before deciding on your filing strategy. For more information on overseas intellectual property strategy, you can visit our overseas IP feature page or contact our legal team directly.

This article was written by Lawyer Li Yuming from the Foreign-Related Intellectual Property Team of Guangdong Zhiming Law Firm. Lawyer Li Yuming has long handled trademark, patent, and copyright matters in the United States and the European Union, providing full-process services for companies going global and cross-border e-commerce sellers, including applications, responses, and rights protection. Consultation hotline: 4008-363-555.

Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available USPTO fee schedules and general practical experience as of 2026, and does not constitute legal advice for any specific case. Official fees are subject to change; the most current fees published on the USPTO official website shall govern. Readers should consult a licensed attorney regarding their own circumstances.