US Patent and Trademark Application Fees to Increase Significantly in 2025

The USPTO has finalized the fee schedule for patent and trademark applications for 2025. The updated fees will take effect on January 19, 2025. The application fee, search fee, examination fee, and grant fee for invention and design patent applications will increase by 6% to 10%. Overall, the standard undiscounted fees for patent applications, including application fee, search fee, and examination fee, will increase from $1,820 to $2,000.

Other notable additions include:

• The first RCE request fee increases by 10%
• Second and subsequent RCEs increased by 43%
• If the total number of claims exceeds 20, the additional fee for each claim will be doubled.
• If there are more than 3 exclusive rights, the additional fee for the exclusive rights will increase by 25%.
• Annual fees, correction request and reexamination fees will increase by 7% to 8%

In addition, the USPTO is introducing a tiered surcharge for information disclosure statements (IDS). If the cumulative number of IDSs provided by the applicant exceeds 50 but does not exceed 100, an IDS surcharge of US$200 will be required. If the IDS documents reach 100-200, an additional fee of US$500 will be required; if the IDS documents exceed 200, the additional fee will reach US$800.

The updated fee schedule also introduces new fee categories, including a continued application fee. For example, if a continued application is filed more than 6 years after the priority date, an additional application fee of $2,700 will be required. If filed more than 9 years after the priority date, the additional application fee will increase to $4,000.