Government Trademark Fees To Rise
The United States Patent and Trademark Office will be increasing certain trademark fees on January 14, 2017. The USPTO is unique among government agencies in that it is a profit center for the US; it generates more revenue for the government than it expends in operating costs.
Most, if not all, of the increasing fees are for paper filings. Trademark applications filed by paper are much more time-consuming than those lodged electronically through the Trademark Office’s online filing system. The filing fee for paper applications is nearly doubling to $600. It appears the costs associated with pursuing a registered trademark are not going to change.
Trademark fees are set at levels projected to cover future costs, including operating costs and reserve funds. The number of applications filed, and the number of registered trademark issued, continues to climb this year, as it has for the past six years. The Trademark Office is predicting that this will not change in the near future. Further, the Office desires to not increase the pendency of a trademark application, which currently averages 9.8 months, despite the predicted increase in trademark filings. Further, the Trademark Office is upgrading its IT systems.
The Trademark Office has chosen to fund these changes and improvements by shifting the fee burden to those still filing by paper. I don’t have figures for the number of applications filed electronically versus in paper, but I find it fascinating that there are apparently enough paper filings that these fee increases will bring in enough money to fund its changes. As the Office puts it: “The fees will allow the Office to further USPTO strategic objectives by: Better aligning fees with the full cost of the relevant products and services; protecting the integrity of the register by incentivizing more timely filing or examination of applications and other filings and more efficient resolution of appeals and trials; and promoting the efficiency of the process, in large part through lower-cost electronic filing options. The changes will also continue to recover the aggregate estimated cost of Trademark and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) operations and USPTO administrative services that support Trademark operations.”