How Much Does a Trademark Cost in 2026?

A trademark costs $350 in USPTO filing fees per class in 2026. Most applicants who hire a lawyer spend $1,100–$2,000 total for a single-class filing. Filing it yourself runs as little as $350, while attorney-assisted applications with office actions, oppositions, or multiple classes can reach $5,000 or more.

The biggest cost decision is not the government fee — it is who does the filing. Browse more legal service cost guides to compare with wills, LLCs, and other everyday legal costs.

Trademark Cost at a Glance

Government fees reflect the USPTO fee schedule effective January 18, 2025, still current in 2026. Attorney ranges reflect flat-fee market pricing across multiple U.S. firms.

What Trademark Registration Actually Buys

A trademark registration is the USPTO’s formal grant of exclusive rights to a brand name, logo, or slogan for specific goods or services. The $350 base fee covers one application in one of 45 classes (34 for products, 11 for services) — it does not cover legal advice, a conflict search, or any response if the examiner objects. That split — government fee versus professional help — is where almost all price variation comes from.

Your application basis also shapes the total. Filing based on current use in commerce (Section 1(a)) is the simplest path: one fee, no follow-up filings. Filing on intent to use (Section 1(b)) lets you lock in a filing date before launch, but adds the $150 per-class Statement of Use later. Foreign applicants filing under Section 44 or the Madrid Protocol (Section 66(a)) face different fee tables entirely — covered below.

Trademark Cost by Application Basis

Intent-to-use is the most common basis for startups, and its true cost is easy to underestimate: the $150 Statement of Use arrives 6–12 months after filing, and each six-month extension while you finalize the product costs another $125 per class. Two extensions turn a “$350 filing” into $750 in government fees alone.

Trademark Cost by Filing Method

DIY filing: $350

You file directly through the USPTO’s Trademark Center, pay $350 per class, and handle everything yourself. No one checks your clearance search beyond what you find, no one verifies your goods/services description fits the ID Manual, and no one drafts your office action response. This works for a made-up word in a single obvious class with no similar marks in use — a narrow slice of filings, but a real one. Budget an extra evening for the ID Manual: picking the wrong description is the most common DIY mistake, and the $200 custom-ID surcharge punishes exactly that error.

Online filing services: $999–$1,249

Services like LegalZoom charge $649–$899 on top of the $350 USPTO fee for application preparation, a basic trademark search, and status tracking. What you typically do not get: a legal opinion on whether your mark is registrable, a response strategy if the examiner issues an office action, or a search covering state registrations and common-law uses. Their included search checks the federal database — one of three that matter. These services make the most sense as a middle path for straightforward marks where you want hand-holding but not a lawyer’s hourly meter running.

Trademark attorney: $1,100–$2,000

Flat-fee market pricing for a full-service engagement — clearance search, application drafting and filing, shepherding through examination — generally runs $750–$1,500 in legal fees on top of the $350 government fee. Filing-only services from some attorneys go as low as $500–$1,000 plus the government fee. Hourly billing, where used, typically runs $250–$400 per hour. The premium buys two things DIY cannot: a professional clearance opinion before you spend a dollar on fees, and someone who has answered hundreds of office actions when yours arrives.

USPTO Filing Fees in 2026

The fee structure changed on January 18, 2025: the old TEAS Plus ($250) and TEAS Standard ($350) tiers were retired and replaced with a single base application at $350 per class, filed through Trademark Center. The old discounts migrated into surcharges you pay for not meeting the requirements:

The practical takeaway: use a pre-approved description from the USPTO ID Manual and file a complete application, and you stay at $350. Write your own description and you are at $550 before anything else happens.

Trademark Cost by Number of Classes

USPTO fees are charged per class, so multi-product brands multiply fast:

Most small businesses file in 1–2 classes. Filing in classes you do not actually use is wasted money — and can draw challenges later.

Trademark Cost Factors

Clearance search depth

A comprehensive search — federal and state registrations, common-law uses, domain names — bundled with an attorney’s clearance opinion runs $500–$1,500. Database-only searches cost less. This is the single most cost-effective spend in trademark work: catching a conflict before filing beats paying to fix a refusal after.

Office actions

Roughly a meaningful share of applications draw at least one office action. A simple procedural response costs $300–$500 through an attorney; a substantive likelihood-of-confusion argument runs $750–$2,500+. USPTO filing fees are non-refundable either way.

Oppositions

If a third party opposes your mark after publication, costs jump to $5,000–$25,000+ in attorney fees. Oppositions are rare for small filings but are the reason high-value brands never skip the clearance search. Most oppositions settle — the published “goes to trial” figures are the ceiling, not the norm — but even a negotiated settlement typically costs $2,000–$5,000 in legal time.

Descriptiveness rejections

The most common substantive refusal is that the mark is “merely descriptive” of the goods — think “Creamy” for yogurt. Overcoming it requires legal argument (or proof of acquired distinctiveness), which is why descriptive brand names are the most expensive kind to register. A distinctive, invented mark sails through; a descriptive one pays attorney hours.

Intent-to-use filings

Filing before you use the mark in commerce (Section 1(b)) defers one cost: the $150 per-class Statement of Use when use begins, plus $125 per class for each six-month extension if you need more time.

International protection

A U.S. registration covers only the U.S. Extending abroad via the Madrid Protocol costs $600 per class in USPTO/WIPO designation fees, plus attorney fees of $2,000–$4,000 for a typical 3–5 country filing.

Additional Trademark Costs

How to Save Money on Trademark Registration

• Use the ID Manual. Picking a pre-approved goods/services description avoids the $200 per-class custom-ID surcharge — the easiest $200 in trademark law.
• File complete the first time. The $100 insufficient-information surcharge is pure waste; double-check every required field before submitting.
• Do your own preliminary search. The free USPTO database search catches obvious conflicts in 20 minutes and costs nothing. Pay for the professional search only after the mark survives your own screen.
• File in one class to start. You can always file additional classes later as the business expands; unused classes are sunk cost.
• Respond to office actions fast. Deadlines are typically 3 months (extendable); missing one can mean abandonment and refiling at full price.
• Consider filing-only attorney services ($500–$1,000 + fees) if your mark is distinctive and your search is clean — you get professional drafting without the full-service price.
• Pick a distinctive mark from day one. Invented or arbitrary names (think “Kodak,” “Apple” for computers) face the fewest refusals; descriptive names invite the $750–$2,500+ substantive office action. The cheapest trademark dispute is the one your brand name never causes.
• Calendar your maintenance deadlines now. The $325 year-5–6 declaration and $650 ten-year renewal have grace periods with penalty fees — set reminders at filing so a $100 late surcharge never becomes a cancelled registration.

How We Compile Our Cost Data

Our figures are cross-checked across the USPTO’s official fee schedule (effective January 18, 2025, current through 2026), flat-fee pricing published by multiple U.S. trademark firms, and national legal-cost surveys. Government fees are exact; attorney ranges reflect market pricing and vary by firm, region, and complexity. USPTO fees can change — confirm the official schedule immediately before filing.

Need help deciding whether your mark is registrable? Contact us — and remember, filing fees are non-refundable, so the cheapest filing is the one done right the first time.