The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced increases to both its Patent and Trademark related government fees, effective January 19^th, and 18^th, respectively, of 2025.   Thus, any filings close to ready should preferably be filed by mid-January 2025 to avoid the government fee increase.  If any clients have any questions about how these fee increases may affect your business, Reston Law Group’s US Registered Patent Lawyers Jesse Fenty and Ralph Albrecht are happy to discuss these fee increases further with you.  Ralph assisted in preparing Comments with the IP Section of the Bar Association of DC (BADC.org) in response to the USPTO’s original proposal in May 2024.

Below is a quick summary highlighting the upcoming USPTO government fee increases:

Patent Fees (Effective January 19, 2025)

• Across-the-board increase: Approximately 7.5% for most patent government fees, (See Final Published Rule shown below 89 Fed. Reg. 91898  and https://www.uspto.gov/about-us/news-updates/patent-fee-changes-take-effect-january-19 )
• Filing, Search, Exam & Issue fees additional increase: Additional 2.5% increase on top of the 7.5%
• Targeted adjustments: Increases for continuing applications (>6 years $2700, or >9 $4,000), design applications (individual fees increase 9-88%, total gov’t fees for filing, searching, examining, and issuing a design patent will increase from estimated $1,760 to $2,600, a 48% increase), excess claims (>20 total, $200 each (+100%), >3 independent, $600 each (+25%), extensions of time for responding to actions in provisionals (1^st month $50, 2^nd $100, 3^rd $200, 4^th $400, 4^th $800), information disclosure statements (IDSs) (50-100 references $200, 100-200 refs $500, >200 $800), FDA patent term extensions (112% to 200% increases), requests for continued exam (1^st RCE +10%, 2^nd, etc.+43%), suspensions of action (1^st +36%, 2^nd, etc. +105%), unintentional delay petitions (up to 2 years +8%, >2 years +43%), AIA Trial Fees(+25%), Director Review of PTAB decision ($452), Terminal Disclaimers (+8%)
• New fees: Introduction of over 50 new fees (including versions for filing in either paper or electronically (our preference)), including the above for requests for continued examination and patent term extensions

Trademark Fees (Effective January 18, 2025)

• Base application fee: $350 per class for electronic trademark applications, $850 per class paper, $600 per class WIPO filed with or subsequent designation. (See Final Published Rule shown below https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-11-18/pdf/2024-26644.pdf , https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/11/18/2024-26644/setting-and-adjusting-trademark-fees-during-fiscal-year-2025 and https://www.uspto.gov/about-us/news-updates/trademark-fee-changes-take-effect-january-18 )
• Post-registration maintenance fees: Increased to balance fee collections due to changes in demand. For electronic, per class, Section 8 (from 225 to $325), Section 9 ($300 to $325), Section 15 (200 to $250),
• Intent-to-use fees: 50% increase (from $100 to $150, per class) for electronic amendment to allege use (AAU) and statement of use (SOU) filings.
• Additional surcharges: For non-standard descriptions, incomplete information, and lengthy filings (>1000 characters, per group of 1,000)
• Letters of Protest and Various petitions: LOP (from 50 to $150), Petition to revive (from 150-$250 electronic, 250 to $400 paper)