A trademark filed correctly, at a fee you know in advance
For founders, artists, nonprofits, and companies anywhere in the United States, protecting a name or logo starts with a defined engagement — a clearance search, an application prepared and filed with the USPTO, and a flat fee agreed to before any work begins. Trademark practice before the USPTO is federal, so this offering isn’t limited to New York the way the rest of the firm’s work is.
Start Your Trademark Intake
Who this is for
Founders naming a company or product · Artists and creators protecting a stage name, logo, or brand · Nonprofits and associations securing their name and mark · Established businesses filing a first application or expanding their portfolio — wherever in the country you’re located
Four defined engagements, one desk
Most clients need one of these four things. Each is scoped and priced on its own, so you know what you’re engaging us for before any work begins.
Clarity before you file
A knockout search and clearance opinion tell you what’s already on the register before you spend money on an application.
Filed the way the USPTO expects
Applications are prepared with the identification-of-goods language and filing-basis choices examining attorneys are used to seeing.
Registration is never assumed
We say plainly what an application can and can’t predict — the USPTO decides examination, and no attorney can promise its outcome.
Federal practice, nationwide clients
USPTO trademark work isn’t limited by state bar admission, so we represent applicants anywhere in the United States.
What each engagement costs
Every fee is confirmed in a written engagement agreement before work begins. USPTO filing fees are separate and are paid directly to the USPTO.
Single-Class Trademark Application
$1,200flat fee. USPTO filing fees start at $350 per class and are paid by you directly to the USPTO; some applications carry additional USPTO surcharges, which we identify before filing. Additional classes are $500 each.
One defined-scope engagement to clear, prepare, and file a trademark application in a single International Class, and to docket it through the first USPTO office action. Responding to an office action is a separate engagement, priced below.
- Knockout search and attorney-reviewed clearance scope
- Ownership and filing-basis review
- Goods/services identification drafted from USPTO-approved language where appropriate
- Preparation and filing
- Docketing through the first office action
Office Action Response
$500–$2,000by refusal type: $500 procedural, $1,500 for a §2(d) likelihood-of-confusion refusal, $1,750–$2,000 where descriptiveness requires an acquired-distinctiveness showing. Confirmed in writing before work begins. There is no USPTO fee to respond; an optional extension of time costs $125.
A defined-scope engagement to respond to a USPTO office action on a pending application. Most applications draw at least one, and the first response is effectively the last real argument — the Board affirms the great majority of refusals on appeal.
- Attorney review of the examining attorney’s stated grounds and the application record
- Procedural work at the $500 tier: disclaimers, identification amendments, specimen substitution, ownership and entity corrections, translations, consents, Supplemental Register amendment
- Substantive work at the higher tiers: a full argument on the stated refusal with supporting evidence and record analysis
- Preparation and filing of the response, and docketing of the resulting deadline
Clearance Search & Opinion
$600 / $1,800$600 for a knockout search and written opinion; $1,800 for a comprehensive availability search, which includes a third-party search report. Either fee is credited against the application fee if you file with us within 90 days.
A risk read before you commit — to a filing, or to the name itself. The knockout tier answers whether anything obvious blocks the mark; the comprehensive tier is for a name you are about to build on, spend on, or raise money against.
- Knockout tier: a search of the USPTO register plus informal web and business-name checking
- Comprehensive tier: a full availability search report covering federal, state, common-law, domain and business-name sources
- A written opinion assessing the conflict risk found for the mark as searched
- A recommendation on filing basis and class scope if you decide to proceed
- No application filing included — a separate engagement if you move forward
Maintenance & Renewal Filings
$450–$650 per class$450 per class for a §8 declaration, $600 for a combined §8 and §15, $650 for a combined §8 and §9 renewal, $650 to respond to a post-registration audit. USPTO fees are separate and paid directly to the USPTO ($325 per class for a §8, $650 per class for a combined §8 and §9).
The post-registration filings that keep a registration alive. Missing a §8 window cancels the registration outright, so each filing is priced and docketed on its own rather than bundled into a single fee spanning a decade.
- Preparation and filing of the §8 declaration of continued use (or excusable nonuse)
- Combined §8 and §15 where incontestability is available
- Combined §8 and §9 renewal at the ten-year window and each one after
- Response to a USPTO post-registration audit, including assembling proof of use
- Calendar monitoring of your §8 and §9 windows, at no charge for registrations we filed
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Every engagement begins with a conflict check and a written engagement agreement — no work starts before both are complete.
USPTO filing fees and other USPTO charges are separate from the flat fee and are paid directly to the USPTO.
Trademark registration is never guaranteed. The USPTO — not this firm — decides the outcome and sets its own examination timeline.
How a trademark actually moves
Five real stages — filing, examination, publication, registration, and maintenance. Some of this is within our control; the pace of examination is not.
Clearance & filing
A knockout search, an attorney review of what it turns up, and preparation and filing of the application with the USPTO once you decide to proceed.
Examination
An examining attorney reviews the application against the register and the Lanham Act’s requirements. This stage moves at the USPTO’s own pace, not ours. The application fee covers docketing through the first office action; if one issues, responding is a separate defined-scope engagement, quoted and agreed before any work begins.
Publication
An application that clears examination is published in the Official Gazette for a 30-day window in which third parties may oppose. Most applications pass through this stage without an opposition being filed.
Registration
If no opposition is filed (or one is resolved in your favor), the USPTO issues the registration — or, for an intent-to-use filing, a notice of allowance followed by a statement of use once the mark is actually in commerce.
Maintenance
A registration survives only with continued filings — the §8 declaration between years five and six, and the §9 renewal (with another §8) every ten years after. We track these dates and handle the filings so nothing lapses.
USPTO examination and publication timing vary considerably and are outside anyone’s control — nothing on this page is a promised timeline, and registration is never guaranteed.
Confidential from the first message
Everything shared through intake is reviewed under a preliminary conflict check — whether or not an engagement follows.
Federal practice, wherever you are
USPTO trademark representation is federal work — we take clients across the United States, not only New York.
Fixed fees, agreed in writing
Every engagement on this page is flat-fee and defined-scope, confirmed in writing before any work begins.
Trademark filing questions
Start your trademark intake
Tell us about the mark and how you’re using it. We’ll follow up within one business day, including a preliminary conflict check.