Client Alert
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Reduced Fees
Client Alert
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Reduced Fees
February 25, 2015
On January 17, 2015 the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) reduced fees for many new trademark applications and most renewals of registration. The USPTO also introduced the new TEAS Reduced Fee (TEAS RF) application filing option.
“The … fee reductions advance the USPTO’s core mission of serving the public in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible,” said Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the USPTO Michelle K. Lee. “Lower fees will lessen the burden for entrepreneurs to obtain the crucial trademark protection they need to grow their businesses, while increased electronic processing improves agency efficiency.”
Under the new fee structure, the fee for a new application filed using the regular Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) application form will be reduced $50, from the current fee of $325 to $275 per class, if the applicant authorizes email communication with the USPTO and agrees to file certain application-related documents electronically during the prosecution of the application (e.g., voluntary amendments, responses to Office Actions, Statement of Use, Requests for extension of time to file a Statement of Use, etc.) (now called TEAS RF). The fee for a new application filed via the existing TEAS Plus option (an application option that requires the applicant to select its goods or services description from the USPTO’s Acceptable ID Manual rather than drafting from scratch) also will be reduced $50, from the current fee of $275 to $225 per class. The fee for an application for renewal of a registration submitted via TEAS will be reduced $100, from $400 per class to $300 per class. Applicants who do not wish to comply with the additional requirements of TEAS RF or TEAS Plus may continue to file TEAS Regular applications at a filing fee of $325 per class, but are nonetheless encouraged to provide an email address for USPTO correspondence and to use TEAS to electronically file application-related submissions to the USPTO. The filing fees for trademark applications and renewals filed on paper will remain unchanged.
Winston & Strawn routinely files nearly all of its trademark applications using TEAS and already complies with the TEAS RF requirements, and TEAS Plus where appropriate. Accordingly, our clients will immediately recognize the benefits of this new pricing structure.