If you do a little research, you’ll quickly learn that it’s $350 to file a trademark application with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (“USPTO”). You would be forgiven for assuming that $350 will be your grand total to own your trademark. Well, I’m here to tell you that the filing fee is rarely the only fee involved.

Once you press submit on that application, a lot can happen, and most of it costs money.

From additional class fees to extension expenses and legal involvement, there are numerous ways that costs can pop up at every stage. Each can impact your approval timeline and have downstream effects for your business if you’re not prepared. This matters if you’re building a brand, launching a product, or investing in marketing before the trademark is secured.

In this article, I outline additional costs I see regularly as a trademark lawyer, so that you can go in clear-eyed, empowered, and prepared.

Additional Classes

The filing fee is just the beginning. The USPTO updated their pricing model at the end of 2025. Now, each trademark, or “mark”, costs $350 per “class” to file. Classes are the categories of goods and services sold under a trademark.

Differing classes are why one company can have the trademark Dove® for soap, and another can have Dove® for chocolates, without consumers thinking the soap maker is also the chocolatier. One company can, and typically does, sell goods and services in multiple classes. Take Nike® for example, they hold multiple classes all under the mark Nike® because they offer a variety of products all under the same trademark.

If you are selling a variety of goods and services, you too might need multiple classes in order to protect your brand name. The classes are designated by a numbering system. Common examples of classes used by small business owners are: class 9 for downloadable digital products like templates and e-books, class 41 for courses, either class 35 or 41 for coaching services (dependent upon the coaching methods), class 25 for most clothes, 16 for journals and planners, class 3 for beauty products, class 5 for supplements, and 31 for pet treats and certain products.

While the registration requirements for a trademark for each of those scenarios are different, you can see how selling in multiple categories can add up cost-wise pretty quickly. Working with a trademark attorney can help you design a plan for prioritizing and staggering your applications so that you can spread out the spend while securing your most vulnerable classes first.

Hot tip: If you decide to file with the ‘kitchen sink’ method and only pay for one class but describe multiple classes of goods or services in your application, the USPTO examiner will separate them out and you will owe additional class filing fees.

In-Use vs Intent-To-Use

You don’t actually have to be using your mark in the marketplace yet to apply for a trademark. You can apply with an “intent-to-use” rather than as “in-use.” However, before your application can be approved, you will need to prove actual current use of the mark in commerce. Proving use switches you over to the “in-use” category, and costs $150 per class.

This one surprises people all the time. Similarly to the kitchen sink method, if you say you are in-use and are not, you will be properly categorized as intent-to-use, and then still owe the switch fee.

Trademark Application Issues

When you apply for your trademark, you have to describe the goods and services. If you’re verbose, that can result in a lengthy application fee. It’s $200 for all descriptions over 1,000 words.

The USPTO likes the descriptions of goods and services to be fairly consistent across marks and classes. It cuts down on their need to scrutinize and analyze each word in every application they receive, which is over 700,000 every year. If you stray from acceptable pre-approved wording and use your own custom wording, the fee for that is $200.

The quality of your description matters because you don’t get blanket ownership of your mark in your approved class categories, you get it for the goods and services described in your application. So, you have to strike the balance of accurate, broad, and specific in your application description.

Foreign applicants do need a US licensed attorney to file for them. So, while not a hidden cost, it’s one to consider if you are not a US citizen or if you are a US citizen whose company is based abroad and applying for the mark.

Office Actions & Trademark Application Delays

Once your application is in the queue, it waits to be assigned to an examiner. Once assigned and reviewed, you either sail on through and your mark is published for opposition, or you might get a response from them called an “Office Action”. OAs are documents explaining why the mark cannot be approved in its current form. Sometimes OAs present tiny hurdles like removing a word in the description or clarifying owner information, other times the obstacle is thornier.

This is usually the moment that founders realize the application process is more involved than they first thought.

More involved Office Action issues include the examiner saying your mark is confusingly similar to another one already registered. Or maybe the mark is deemed “descriptive”, your proof of use in commerce (aka “specimen”) is insufficient, or that the mark fails to function as a trademark.

Office Actions must be responded to in order to proceed. Simple responses cost a few hundred dollars in attorney’s fees, while substantive responses typically range from $1,000-$4,000. Simple and complex Office Action responses warrant legal advice, and written substantive responses are best handled by a trademark attorney, who will cite the specific laws that support the argument that your trademark application should be approved.

TTAB Proceedings

If after responses to Office Actions the examiner is still not persuaded, you may appeal with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”). Additionally, if someone opposes your trademark ownership or you need to contest someone else’s trademark because you think it infringes on yours, TTAB is where that happens.

TTAB is similar enough to appellate court that you would need a seasoned attorney to help. Costs start in the $10K range and go up from there. The good news is that this is rare for newer businesses to encounter.

Scammers

I would be remiss if I did not warn you of the rapacious and soulless scammers in the trademark space. Without fail, an applicant will receive fake emails, phone calls, and letters in the mail that look professional and even sometimes imitate the USPTO. They employ scare tactics like saying you have a three-day deadline or your application is cancelled. They will charge you a make-believe rush fee and then not do any of the work. Usually, the deadline was fake and the application has not even reached an examiner’s desk yet.

There are even scammers who will charge thousands of dollars to “file your trademark for you” and then not file it.

The USPTO communicates to you through your online account or your attorney most often. Scammers are preying on people who are unfamiliar with the USPTO website and the trademark process. Unfortunately, money paid to scammers is rarely ever seen again.

Time Expenses

Time is money. Remember that there are multiple phases before a trademark application is fully approved and registered, with months often passing between the phases. If you need to file an extension, you can request one for $125 per class. If you need to convert your intent-to-use into an in-use, that takes time. You may need to delay your launch date. Business partners can get antsy.

Having an application denied means starting over. You can’t get back the time or money you spent prior. Someone else might have already started running with your #2 name choice. Being pointed, strategic, and decisive about what you apply for and how can save you both time and money.

Rebranding Costs

If your application is denied or you’ve been operating without a trademark, then you strongly need to consider a rebrand or risk being sued and potentially forced to pay back money you earned using a trademark that is confusingly similar or identical to someone else’s.

Rebranding usually means more than a new name. If you’ve created goods with the mark on them, you shouldn’t use them and that’s money you can’t get back. You will need to come up with a new name and logo, change your website and packaging, and develop new marketing materials. You basically now need to produce new everything, so you’re doubling your initial costs. If you’re in this situation, you might as well hire an attorney so you don’t get into the same mess twice.

Trademark Monitoring & Enforcement

Hopefully you sail through the application process and get exactly what you want without hiccups. That does happen! Regardless, once your mark is registered, you will want to protect what you bought.

Monitoring services keep an eye online and in the USPTO application section for someone using a name or logo that seems similar to your trademark. Monitoring services range from $150 a year to $3,000 depending on the range monitored and associated services.

If it’s discovered that someone is potentially infringing on your trademark ownership rights, then you need to require them to stop. First, you don’t want someone riding your coat tail and confusing your consumers. Second, you don’t want your mark to be diluted or deemed generic (which are bad descriptors in the trademark world), and you certainly don’t want to commit laches, meaning waiting too long to enforce your rights.

Typically, the first step in defending your trademark is for a lawyer to send the offender a cease & desist letter. You can of course ask politely on your own for them to stop, but letters from an attorney tend to be much more effective. Those cost ~$1,500 a piece and go up depending on complexity.

Between the fifth and sixth year after registration, and then every 10 years afterwards, you will need to prove and certify that you are still using the trademark for the goods and services for which you received the registration. These fees start at $325 and go up depending on type and number of classes.

Proactive Action

In the end, the USPTO trademark filing form is not impossible to figure out and you can file yourself. However, not knowing what the path ahead is like and having a plan for its bumps and curves, can cost you time, money, and energy that could better be spent elsewhere. A seasoned trademark attorney can give you a risk assessment, a plan for the path ahead, and do all the specialized heavy lifting for you.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, meaning it’s easier to do something right from the outset than fix it later.

In this article, I laid out some of the most common unexpected costs in the trademark process that founders encounter. If you want a clearer line of sight into your potential costs, then working with a trademark attorney is for you. I’m available for trademark assessments, filings, and protection if you don’t want to go it alone. Get in touch today!

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. The information provided may not reflect the most current legal developments. You should consult a qualified lawyer for counsel tailored to your situation before making decisions.