Overview of the 2025 USPTO Trademark Fee Changes Starting January 18, 2025

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The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced significant changes to trademark filing fees, which will take effect on January 18, 2025. The changes impact both new applications and post-registration maintenance fees, as well as several specific fees related to petitions, protests, and statements of use, and includes new fees related to insufficient application information and failure to prepare an application using the USPTO’s pre-approved identifications from its Trademark Identification Manual.

Key Changes to Application Fees

Retirement of TEAS Plus Applications

The USPTO previously had two different trademark filing “tiers” —TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard—whereby TEAS Plus had a $250 per class filing fee, and TEAS Standard had a $350 per class filing fee. The Office has now consolidated their forms into one “base application” with a fee of $350 per class filed under Sections 1 and 44 of the Trademark Act (applications filed based on use, intent to use, foreign applications, and foreign registrations). Additional fees will be added based on the complexity or completeness of the application, as discussed below.

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Hoisting Scammers with Their Own Petard with the UDRP

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With the widespread availability of domain registration and hosting services and the advent of low-cost generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) software, the creation of fraudulent websites has never been easier—or more convincing. With little more effort than a few prompts of an AI program, scammers are able to quickly set up seemingly legitimate websites with text, images, and even video that can look and sound like the real thing. Online consumers, even those savvy enough to recognize your typical email phishing scam, may be fooled by professional-looking websites imitating existing businesses and organizations for less than savory reasons.

For brand owners, the consequences of these imitators can be myriad, including a loss of brand control, irate consumers looking for someone to blame, and ultimately a hit to your bottom line. Indeed, according to the FBI’s 2023 Internet Crime Report, Americans reported over $7.5 billion in losses stemming from intellectual property-related cybercrimes in 2023, up from 2022. Adding to this problem is the fact enforcing your rights against scammer sites can be costly and time-consuming. Scammers themselves are often anonymous and unsurprisingly unlikely to make themselves readily identifiable or easy to track down. Domain registrars and web hosts may require brand owners to navigate byzantine reporting channels in order to flag problematic conduct. And the resources required attempting to litigate every offending domain in court can make it an untenable option for many.

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NO FAKES Here: A New Tool to Protect Against the Misuse of AI?

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What do Scarlett Johansson, Drake, The Weeknd, and Taylor Swift have in common (besides being among this millennial’s fav celebs)?  They all have the distinct displeasure of becoming a target of deepfake technology – a type of AI that creates fake, but highly realistic-looking audio, images, or videos using the likeness and/or voice of its victim.

While there are certainly positive uses of deepfake technology (Val Kimer’s AI-generated voice in his reprisal of “Iceman” in Top Gun Maverick comes to mind),1 the widespread potential for abuse and malicious use, from fake musical performances, to fake political robocalls, to pornographic content, is top of mind for the entertainment industry, politicians, and ordinary folk alike.

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Make your Company a Hard Target for Job Scams

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Your company’s talent is its lifeblood. Job postings for qualified individuals and other recruitment activities are vital to its operations. What happens, then, when scammers disrupt your business by conducting phishing schemes to trick individuals into applying for nonexistent jobs you did not post with the objective of stealing their personally identifiable information? In the age of remote work and virtual hiring, the impersonation of companies in job recruitment scams has become increasingly prevalent.

It can be difficult for job seekers to recognize a recruitment outreach as a scam, particularly when they’re highly interested in the opportunity. Therefore, it is incumbent upon companies to take steps to mitigate or stop the potential for harm. Leveraging company intellectual property is crucial to combating such schemes and to protecting both job seekers and the company’s good name.

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From Concept to Commerce: The Art of Trademark Specimens of Use

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In the world of trademarks, specimens of use (or proof of use) play a crucial role in obtaining and maintaining a trademark registration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). In this blog post, we’ll delve into the types of specimens that are accepted by the USPTO (hint: they’re not alien artifacts!), the specific requirements for each type of specimen, and some practical tips to help you navigate the selection process. So, grab your magnifying glass (figuratively, of course) and let’s examine the basics of specimens of use!

What is a Specimen of Use, and When Do I Need One?

Before the USPTO grants registration of your trademark, it wants to see tangible evidence that your mark is actually being used in U.S. commerce. That’s where specimens of use come in. A “specimen of use” simply means evidence of how a trademark is used. To meet the USPTO requirements, the evidence must show actual commercial use of the mark in the U.S. in connection with the goods and/or services claimed in the application or registration. There are three circumstances under which trademark owners are required to submit specimens proving use of their marks: (1) to obtain registration; (2) to maintain registration; and (3) to respond to a post-registration audit from the USPTO. Let’s investigate these scenarios further.

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Trademark Toolkit for In-House Counsel: “Can We Trademark This?”

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Most in-house counsel periodically encounter branding questions — and the business team wants answers … yesterday! To give you a head start, this article discusses key branding questions that companies frequently face and provides a roadmap for addressing them.

Can I trademark/patent/copyright this name? Let’s find out!

For starters, let’s clarify. This common intellectual property inquiry relates to trademarks — words and symbols that identify your company’s products and services, distinguishing them from competitors’ products and services. In contrast, patents protect inventions, and copyright law protects original works of authorship like photos, books and musical compositions.

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Connecting with Digital Natives through Brand Protection

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With the constant rise of counterfeiting, protecting one’s brand is now more important than ever. Many brand owners already take protective steps to protect their brands such as registering brands through trademark and copyright registrations and monitoring fraudulent use of said brands. However, with our current social media-driven world, connecting with the digitally native generations is a critical measure brand owners should consider in protecting their reputation and their consumers.

The term “digital native” describes a person who grew up in the information age with computers and an understanding of the Internet. Digital natives make up the largest share of the consumer base and workforce: Millennials (born between 1980-1994), Gen Z (born between 1995-2012), and Gen Alpha (born between 2013-2025) are digital natives because they were exposed to the Internet, social media, and mobile systems from an early age. Digital native generations are important for any brand’s future because they have significant buying power and influence.

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For In-House Counsel: 12 Questions to Ask When the Business Team Wants to Launch a Sweepstakes or Contest (Tomorrow)

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We’ve seen this scenario (one too) many times before: the business/marketing team comes to the in-house legal team and wants to run a sweepstakes or contest to promote a brand or a new product line. Surprise! They are hoping to launch it as soon as possible – maybe even tomorrow. But in the request to the legal team for approval, details are sparse, and it isn’t clear exactly what the business team intends to do.

In case you’re faced with an “emergency” like the one described above, this blog post is intended to provide a quick tool kit for in-house lawyers to keep things on track by asking the following questions:

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New Frontier: Ten Tips for Navigating Brand Protection in the Metaverse

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Advances in technology have taken the world by storm in recent years and brand owners must adapt to new forms of expression and brand awareness. Enter the metaverse: an online virtual world where users can interact with each other and digital objects including Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). NFTs are unique digital assets depicting works of art, photographs, text, and/or other digital content, minted using blockchain to identify an interest in a certain asset. Many companies are using NFTs to leverage their brands, which in turn create new revenue channels.

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