How Much Does a Trademark Cost?

The cost of preparing and submitting a federal trademark registration application will vary from law firm to law firm — and vary based on the actual mark.

Many times, to have a law firm prepare and submit a trademark application for you — you will likely pay $900 to $3,000 in total.

The trademark application cost breaks down to:

• about $650 to $1,500 for Attorney’s fees (Attorney time); and
• about $250 to $1,500 in Trademark Office fees.

The process for applying for a federal trademark registration generally goes:

1) decision on the mark (word, phrase, or logo);

2) determining if that mark is already being used for a similar good or service

3) submission of an application

4) a decision by the Trademark Office if the registration for the mark will be approved.

A typical option for submitting a federal trademark registration application offered by a law firms is:

1. The law firm will determine if the mark is already in the Trademark Office database of marks (TESS).

• Often, the process performed is called a knock out search, which is a search in TESS for the exact same word(s) and sometimes similar word(s). Often this knockout search is included in the Attorney’s fees for the application.
• Since the knockout search is only for the exact same word, if a more definitive answer is needed to determine if there are similar marks in the way the word looks or sounds — or the way a logo looks — then the law firm can order an outside report from a third party such as CompuMark or Corsearch. The third party report is usually 200 pages in length and communicating the results of the report will be a variable amount of Attorney time: So in general, there are extra fees for the actual report and the time to convey the results of the report to the Client.

2. The law firm will prepare and file the application.

3. The law firm will respond to any rejections related to the application.

• Many times the less time-intensive responses are included in the Attorney’s fees for the application.
• The more time-intensive responses are not included and will be a few hours of extra Attorney time ($300 — $1,500 and up).

4. The law firm will tell the Client if the application is approved and a registration issued. This is usually included in the Attorney’s fees for the application.

In summary the Attorney time is for:

1) a knockout search; 2) preparation and submission of the application; 3) responding to simple rejections; and 4) communicating to the Client if a registration was issued. This Attorney time is usually $650 to $1,500.

The Trademark Office fees typically follow some generalities:

1) A mark will be filed under one or more classes of goods or services.

- The Trademark Office charges $250 or $350 per class.

- The difference between $250 or $350 is determined as to whether the applicant uses suggested wording by the Trademark Office. The cheaper fee is for applicants who use the suggested wording for describing their good or service. An applicant can describe their good or service in other words than the suggested words — that is when the higher fee applies.

Example of number of classes: If an applicant applies for coffee — that is one class. If the applicant adds to that application the cafe services to sell coffee — that is another class for the service of selling the good of coffee in a cafe.

Example of a lower or higher fee for suggested/un-suggested wording: If the suggested wording for coffee is just “coffee” and the applicant describes the good as “coffee” — then the lower fee applies. If there is no suggested wording of “espresso ground coffee” and the applicant describes their good as “espresso ground coffee” — then the higher fee applies.

2) An applicant can apply for a mark which the applicant is already using or plans to use (intent-to-use).

- If the applicant has not used the mark yet — and applies as an intent-to-use application — the applicant will have to pay a $100 fee with their post-application submission of how the mark is being used. Also if there is an extension of time needed to submit evidence of use of the mark — because the applicant thought they were going to use the mark — but weren’t able to yet — then there is a $125 fee for a 6 month extension of time to show use of the mark.

As stated there is variability in pricing — although in general an applicant will usually pay $900 to $3,000 in total — for a law firm to submit a trademark application on their behalf.