U.S. Trademark Fees to Increase in 2025. Canadians Should Take Note.

On January 18, 2025, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the USPTO) will be increasing fees for trademark filings, including for new applications. These trademark fee increases are significant. They will be especially so for Canadian businesses with U.S. trademark portfolios or who are planning to register trademarks in the U.S. Not only will they feel the sting of the current unfavourable exchange rates, but also, and perhaps more importantly, they will need to use different descriptions of their goods and services in their U.S. and Canadian applications to avoid paying significantly increased fees in the U.S. or facing more lengthy processing delays in Canada.

Canadian businesses that plan to register trademarks in the U.S. are encouraged to do so before January 18, 2025 to take advantage of the existing fee structure. Owners of U.S. trademark portfolios should also consider filing statements of use and maintenance and renewal documents before the fees for those filings increase as well.

Fee Changes For New Applications

Among the more significant changes for trademark filers is the removal of the discounted “TEAS Plus” filing option for new trademark applications and the addition of a $200 USD surcharge for each class of goods or services that includes terms that are not pre-approved by the USPTO or that exceed 1000 characters. As a result, applications with “free form” descriptions that are currently subject to a $350 USD per class fee will be subject to a $550 per class fee or, potentially, a $750 USD per class fee.

The current “TEAS Plus” option permits trademark applicants to pay $250 USD per class of goods and services, compared to the $350 USD per class fee for a “TEAS Standard” application, if they limit their descriptions of goods and services to those that have been pre-approved by the USPTO. Starting on January 18, 2025, the USPTO is doing away with the “TEAS Plus” filing option. All new applications filed after that date will be subject to a base fee of $350 USD per class. There will no longer be discounts where pre-approved descriptions are used. Moreover, if pre-approved descriptions are not used (i.e. where the goods and services are not limited to terms selected from the Trademark ID Manual) then the application will be subject to a $200 USD surcharge. There will be a further $200 USD per class surcharge where the description of goods or services in that class exceeds 1000 characters in length.

All this means that a trademark application for goods and services that are not expressly included in the Trademark ID Manual, which is common for innovative or unusual businesses, the USPTO fees per class of goods and services will be $550 USD, and potentially $750 USD if the listing of goods and services is particularly lengthy.

Extra Challenges For Canadian Businesses

The new fee structure is particularly relevant to Canadian businesses filing both Canadian and U.S. trademark applications at the same time. After January 18, 2025, they will not be able to use the same descriptions of goods and services in Canada and the U.S. unless they’re willing to pay significantly increased fees in the U.S. or to wait much longer for their applications to be approved in Canada. Like the USPTO, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (“CIPO”) encourages applicants to use pre-approved descriptions of goods and services by promising faster processing times for applications that use CIPO’s pre-approved descriptions. However, and unhelpfully, CIPO’s pre-approved descriptions are different from those in the USPTO.

The upshot is that, after January 18, 2025, a Canadian cross-border business that wants to avoid paying significantly increased government fees and, at the same time, to ensure that its applications proceed as quickly as possible will need to pay extra attention to how its goods and services are described in its Canadian and U.S. trademark applications.

Better yet, they should get their applications file before that. Shift Law has Canadian and U.S. trademark agents and lawyers who can help.

*This article does not include an exhaustive list of all the fee changes as part of the Setting and Adjusting Trademark Fees During Fiscal Year 2025. For a complete list of the upcoming fee changes, please refer to the USPTO’s website.