By Abhishek Chandok and Vibhukant Chauhan
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is planning to implement the new fees relating to trademarks in USA and on March 26, 2024, the USPTO issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to set or increase certain trademark fees in the United States of America.
The NPRM issued includes the introduction of 11 new fees and the discontinuation of 5 current fees. The NPRM commences the 60 days for members of the public to provide their comments to the USPTO and the USPTO intends to issue a final ruling in Financial Year 2025 following a review of public comments received.
The aim of fee setting at the USPTO is to provide adequate financial resources to facilitate the effective and smooth administration of the United States Intellectual Property (IP) System. The overriding principles behind this goal are to:
- Function within a sustainable funding model that avoids disruptions caused by fluctuations in financial operations.
- Enable the USPTO to continue making strategic improvements.
Trademarks USA- The USPTO proposes to set and adjust fees with respect to the following fee categories:
- Applications
- Intent to Use Filings
- Amendment to Allege Use
- Statement of Use
- Letters of Protest
- Post Registration Maintenance filings
- Renewals
- Declaration of Use
- Declaration of Incontestability
- Petitions to the Director
- Petitions to Revive the Application.
Noticeably, the increase in the fee appears to deal with “Bad Faith Filings” which results in a backlog at the trademark Registry in the United States of America. In this regard, the USPTO is planning to introduce a new fee to curb the poorly filed applications i.e. $100 will be charged per class for providing insufficient information in the trademark application.
A breakdown of the Proposed Fee by USPTO is listed below for ready reference:
- APPLICATION FILING
Trademarks USA Description Current Fee Proposed Fee Dollar Change Basic application, per class $250 $300 $50 Fee for insufficient information, per class N/A $100 N/A Fee for using the free form text box to enter the identification of goods/services N/A $200 N/A For each additional 1,000 characters beyond the first 1,000, per class N/A $200 N/A
- INTENT TO USE FILING
Trademarks USA Description Current Fee Proposed Fee Dollar Change Amendment to allege use (AAU), electronic per class $100 $150 $50 Statement of Use (SOU), electronic per class $100 $150 $50
- POST REGISTRATION MAINTENANCE FILINGS
The percentage of registrants who choose to maintain/renew their trademark and file for maintenance is decreasing. Further, the USPTO expects this trend to continue due to anticipated growth in application submissions from groups historically less likely to maintain a registration. Given these changes in demand and filing behaviors, aggregate revenue derived from maintenance filings requires a rebalancing to keep barriers to filing new applications low.
Trademarks USA Description Current Fee Proposed Fee Dollar Change Section 09 registration renewal application, electronic per class $300 $350 $50 Section 08 Declaration, electronic per class $225 $300 $75 Section 71 Declaration, electronic per class $225 $300 $75 Section 15 Declaration, electronic per class $200 $250 $50
- LETTER OF PROTEST AND PETITIONS
Trademarks USA Description Current Fee Proposed Fee Dollar Change Letter of Protest $50 $150 $100 Petition to the Director $250 $400 $150 Petition to Revive an application $150 $250 $100 With the submission of the proposed new fee by USPTO, the Trademark Applicants/owners can expect progress towards optimizing trademark application pendency, improving accuracy and reliability of the trademark register, fostering business effectiveness and improved customer experience, and ensuring financial sustainability to facilitate effective operations.
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