Trademark Registration Cost Breakdown
The total cost to register a trademark includes two components: the attorney fee and the USPTO government filing fee. Understanding these costs upfront helps you budget effectively for your brand protection strategy.
USPTO Government Filing Fees
The USPTO charges a non-refundable filing fee for each trademark application. The current fee structure offers two options:
- TEAS Plus Filing: $250 per class — Requires use of pre-approved descriptions of goods/services from the USPTO ID Manual. Lower cost but stricter requirements.
- TEAS Standard Filing: $350 per class — Allows custom descriptions of goods/services. More flexibility but higher fee per class.
Each class of goods or services requires a separate filing fee. Most businesses need one to three classes to adequately protect their mark.
Attorney Fees
Trademark attorney fees vary widely across the industry. Some firms charge by the hour ($200 to $600+/hour), while others offer flat-fee packages. At Blue Ridge Trademark, we believe flat-fee pricing is the fairest and most transparent approach for trademark registration services. Our clients always know the total cost before they commit.
Attorney Fees vs. Government Fees: The Two Numbers That Matter
Every quoted trademark price is really two numbers stacked together, and conflating them is how people end up surprised.
USPTO filing fees are set by the government and non-refundable. The base application fee is $350 per class of goods or services, per mark. Two classes means twice the government fee. Surcharges apply if the identification of goods and services is not drawn from the USPTO's pre-approved ID Manual, and additional charges apply to unusually long free-form descriptions. These fees are the same whether you file yourself, use an online service, or hire counsel.
Attorney fees are what you pay for the legal work: clearance analysis, drafting the identification, selecting the filing basis, prosecuting the application through examination, and responding to refusals. This is where quotes diverge wildly, and where the number alone tells you very little.
Blue Ridge Trademark charges flat fees, quoted before engagement: $2,499 for a single mark, $4,500 for two, $6,750 for three. USPTO fees are separate and paid directly to the government.
What a Trademark Attorney Costs — and Why the Cheapest Quote Is Rarely the Cheapest Outcome
Attorney pricing for a single-class federal application generally falls into three tiers:
- Filing services ($99–$599 plus government fees). These are typically not law firms. You get form preparation and submission. Clearance searching is automated or absent, and responding to a refusal is an upcharge — often a substantial one.
- Flat-fee trademark practices ($1,500–$3,500 plus government fees). Attorney-conducted clearance search, drafted identification, and prosecution. The better ones include at least one office action response.
- Hourly IP firms ($400–$800+ per hour). Appropriate for complex portfolios, international filings, and contested matters. Unpredictable for a straightforward single mark.
The reason the cheap tier frequently costs more in total: a refusal you have to pay separately to answer, or a rejected application whose $350 government fee is gone and must be paid again on refiling. Roughly half of all applications draw at least one office action. Pricing that treats that as an exception is pricing for a case that usually does not happen.
Trademark Application Cost by Number of Classes
Classes are the single biggest driver of government cost. The Nice Classification system divides goods and services into 45 classes, and you pay per class. A clothing brand that also runs a retail website is likely in Class 25 and Class 35 — two classes, two filing fees.
Filing in more classes than you need wastes money and creates maintenance obligations later. Filing in too few leaves gaps a competitor can occupy. Getting the class selection right is part of the legal work, not an administrative detail.
Ongoing costs are worth budgeting for at the outset. A Section 8 declaration of continued use is due between the fifth and sixth year after registration, and a combined Section 8 and 9 renewal every ten years, each carrying a government fee per class. A registration that is not maintained is cancelled.
Free Ways to Reduce What You Spend
Several things cost nothing and meaningfully lower your total outlay:
- Choose a stronger mark. Descriptive marks draw Section 2(e)(1) refusals that are expensive to fight and often unwinnable. A suggestive or arbitrary mark clears faster and cheaper. This choice is free and it is made before you spend anything.
- Search before you commit. A clearance search costs a fraction of a rebrand. Finding a blocking registration in week one is the cheapest possible outcome.
- File once, correctly. Government fees are non-refundable and the identification of goods cannot be broadened after filing. Rework is the most avoidable expense in the process.