Cost to Trademark a Name (2026 Fees)

Trademarking a name in the United States costs a minimum of $350 per class in government fees if you file electronically and do it yourself. Most businesses spend $850 to $2,500 in the first year once you add a clearance search and an attorney, and more for two or three classes. Here is every line item, what a class is, and a worked example to budget from.

The short answer

There are four kinds of cost, and most people budget for only the first.

• Government filing fee — $350 per class for the base electronic application at the USPTO, as of 2025. Non-refundable, even if refused.
• Search — free on the USPTO database; a few hundred dollars for a professional comprehensive search.
• Attorney — typically $500 to $2,000, more if the USPTO pushes back.
• Maintenance — filings between years 5 and 6, then 9 and 10, then every ten years.

Before you spend any of it, confirm the name is available. Paying $350 for the USPTO to tell you someone already owns the mark is the most common way to waste money here.

USPTO filing fees

The United States Patent and Trademark Office charges per application and per class. The base electronic application fee is $350 per class as of 2025, after a restructuring that replaced the older TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard tiers with one base fee plus surcharges. Check uspto.gov for the current schedule.

Surcharges apply when the application is non-standard: a custom goods and services description instead of one from the USPTO's ID Manual costs extra per class, and so do blank required fields.

Two more fees can appear later: a Statement of Use fee per class if you filed on an intent-to-use basis (each six-month extension costs more), and fees for appeals after a final refusal. Responding to an ordinary office action is free. None of it is refunded if the application fails; the USPTO charges for examining, not granting.

What a trademark class is

A trademark protects a name for specific goods or services, not in the abstract. The USPTO uses 45 international classes: 34 for goods, 11 for services. You pay the fee once per class.

A SaaS company usually files in class 42, plus 9 if it ships a downloadable app. A clothing brand with its own store may want 25 and 35. Each extra class is another $350. File only for what you sell now or within a year.

Attorney fees and search costs

Search

A clearance search tells you whether the name, or something confusingly similar, is already registered or pending in your classes. The USPTO's own search is free and catches near-exact matches. Always do it.

A comprehensive search goes further: phonetic equivalents, alternate spellings, state registrations, common-law uses, and domains. Search firms and attorneys charge a few hundred dollars, often $300 to $800. Worth it if the name is central to your business.

Attorney

US-based applicants are not required to use an attorney; foreign-domiciled applicants must. Most who hire one pay a flat fee, typically $500 to $2,000, covering drafting and filing. Responding to an office action is often extra, from a few hundred to over a thousand dollars. Where an attorney earns the fee is the description and class selection: too broad gets refused, too narrow leaves gaps.

Maintenance costs after registration

A US trademark can last indefinitely if you keep proving you use it. Miss a deadline and it is cancelled.

1. Between years 5 and 6 — a Section 8 Declaration of Continued Use with a specimen showing the mark in use, fee per class. Optionally add a Section 15 declaration, which makes the mark harder to challenge.
2. Between years 9 and 10 — a combined Section 8 declaration and Section 9 renewal, fee per class.
3. Every 10 years after — the same combined filing.

Each deadline has a six-month grace period with a surcharge. Budget in the low hundreds per class per filing.

State vs federal vs international

State

Each state runs its own register, usually through the Secretary of State. Fees are often under $100, but protection stops at the state line and you cannot use ®. It suits a business that will only ever operate locally.

Federal

A USPTO registration protects the name nationwide, lets you use ®, puts your mark in the database every competitor searches, and gives you standing to take a conflicting domain. For anything sold online, federal is the one that matters.

International

Trademarks are territorial; a US registration does nothing in the UK or Japan. The Madrid Protocol extends a home application to over a hundred countries through one filing with the World Intellectual Property Organization, for a base fee plus a per-country fee. Cheaper than filing country by country, but a handful of markets still runs into the thousands. File in the US first; add countries when you have revenue there.

When you do not need a trademark yet

A trademark is a cost of scale, not a cost of starting. You can reasonably wait if:

• You have not validated the business — many first names change within a year. Register the domain, do the free search, and file once the name has survived customers.
• You operate in one place — a single-location business gets most of its protection from common-law use and a cheap state filing.
• The name is descriptive — "Austin Plumbing Services" will be refused anyway.

Do not wait if you are raising money, selling nationally, or licensing the name.

Common mistakes that waste the fee

• Filing in the wrong class — a SaaS company that files only in class 9 (downloadable software) when it sells a web subscription (class 42) has a mark that does not cover what it sells.
• Picking a descriptive name — Fast Delivery, Best Coffee, Cheap Insurance get refused as merely descriptive. The USPTO wants invented, arbitrary, or suggestive words. Pick a distinctive name from the start; the Business Name Generator is built around exactly that.
• Skipping the search — likelihood of confusion is the most common refusal.
• Listing the wrong owner — the applicant should be the LLC or corporation, not the founder personally. Fixing it later is another filing and fee.

Worked example: a realistic first-year cost

You are launching subscription software under an invented name, covering the web service and the mobile app (classes 42 and 9), with an attorney on a flat fee.

The same name filed in one class, by yourself, with only the free search, costs $350. The difference is risk: a do-it-yourself filer has a higher chance of a refusal that costs the $350 and eight months. In between, one class with a professional search and no attorney runs $700 to $900, reasonable for a solo founder with a clearly distinctive name.

FAQ

How long does it take to trademark a name?

Roughly 12 to 18 months from filing to registration for a clean application, longer with an office action or opposition. Your filing date sets priority, so the wait does not weaken your position.

Can I trademark a name for free?

You cannot register for free. But you gain common-law rights by using a distinctive name in commerce, and you can use ™ on any name you claim. ® is reserved for registered marks.

Does registering an LLC or a domain protect the name?

No. An LLC registration stops another LLC in your state using the identical entity name; a domain gives you the address. Only a trademark stops a competitor trading under the name. Our LLC name ideas guide covers the entity side.

How do I check if a name is available before paying?

Three checks, in order: the USPTO database for the name and close variants in your classes; your state's business registry; then the domain and social handles. The Company Name Generator checks domain availability as it generates, so you start with names that clear the third check and only pay fees on names that clear the first two.

What if the USPTO refuses my application?

You get a written office action explaining why and a deadline to respond. Many refusals are fixable by amending the description or disclaiming a descriptive word. A likelihood-of-confusion refusal often means a different name. The fee is not refunded.