How much does a trademark lawyer cost?
A US trademark application costs $350 per class in government fees, filed electronically, under the USPTO fee schedule effective January 2025 and last revised in August 2026. The lawyer is a separate cost: intellectual property work bills at $453 an hour on average, the highest of any practice area Clio measures apart from corporate litigation. Registering one mark in one class with no complications is a small amount of lawyer time; a clearance search across several classes with an office action to answer is not.
$350
per class, electronic filing, USPTO fee
$453
average hourly rate, intellectual property
$409
blended firm rate, intellectual property
Cost breakdown
Each table below comes from one source, named underneath it, with the date that source last revised the figures. Everything is a United States figure in USD.
Government fee
| Item | Fee |
|---|---|
| Trademark application, electronic, per class | $350.00 |
What a trademark lawyer charges by the hour: intellectual property rates
| Practice area | Lawyer | Non-lawyer | Firm blended |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intellectual Property | $453 | $241 | $409 |
| Business Formation / Compliance | $378 | $190 | $353 |
| Contracts | $373 | $193 | $356 |
| National average, all areas | $349 | $187 | $311 |
A bar for each row of the table above, 4 of them, drawn to the same scale so the spread is visible at a glance. The figure beside each bar is the one the table prints.
What changes the price
- How many classes
- The USPTO fee is charged per class of goods and services. Filing in three classes is three times the government fee, before any lawyer time.
- Whether you search first
- A clearance search costs money up front and is the main thing standing between you and a refusal, a rebrand, or somebody else’s cease and desist.
- Office actions
- If the examining attorney raises an objection, answering it is extra work. Distinctive marks attract fewer of these than descriptive ones, which is a naming decision as much as a legal one.
- Oppositions
- A third party challenging your application turns a filing into a contested proceeding, and the cost profile changes completely.
- Maintenance
- Registration is not the end. There are declarations and renewals at set intervals, each with its own USPTO fee.
How to pay less
- Ask for a flat fee
- Straightforward filings are commonly quoted as a fixed price including the search. That converts an unbounded hourly exposure into a number.
- File only the classes you trade in
- Each class carries its own government fee for the life of the mark. Speculative classes are a recurring cost for a right you are not using.
- Choose a distinctive name
- Invented and arbitrary marks clear more easily than descriptive ones. The cheapest trademark work is the work a good name avoids.
- Search before you print anything
- A clearance search costs a fraction of a rebrand, and the rebrand is what you are buying insurance against.
Questions
Do I need a lawyer to file a trademark?
US-domiciled applicants can file themselves; foreign-domiciled applicants must use a US-licensed attorney. Filling in the form is the easy part. Most of what a lawyer is worth here sits in the clearance search and in answering an office action.
What does the USPTO fee actually cover?
Examination of your application in the class you filed it in. It is not refunded if the application is refused, which is the argument for searching first.
How long does trademark registration take?
Many months at best, longer if an office action or opposition arrives. Applications are examined in order, and the queue is the main variable.
Is a state trademark cheaper than a federal one?
Considerably, and it protects you only in that state. For anything sold online or across state lines, federal registration is the one that does the work.
Where these figures come from
The government fee above is exact and comes straight from the USPTO. The attorney figure is an hourly benchmark; treat it as the going rate for the trade rather than as your quote. Many trademark firms work to a flat fee for a straightforward filing, and asking for that flat fee is more useful than multiplying the hourly rate by a guess.
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How Much Should I Charge as a Lawyer? Average lawyer hourly rate by state and practice area