The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published its final trademark fee adjustment on October 21, 2016, with an effective date of January 14, 2017. Reading the publication as an immediate fee change would collapse two different events. Reading the earlier proposal as the final schedule would introduce another error: the agency changed part of its approach before adoption. [2016-25506]

The May 27 notice was a proposal with comments due July 11. It described cost recovery, register integrity and electronic processing as policy objectives. The October rule retains those objectives but records a different final treatment for extensions of time to file a statement of use. The proposal provides the earlier rationale; it does not override the later operative amounts. [2016-25506][2016-12571]

For a six-month extension to file a statement of use, the final section 2.6(a)(4) schedule specifies $125 per class through TEAS and $225 per class on paper. These are extension-request fees, not the fee for filing the statement itself and not the initial application fee. The final rule’s explanation says the electronic extension fee is being reduced, so an across-the-board increase is an inaccurate description. [2016-25506]

The useful sequence is therefore to identify the action, filing channel and effective date before selecting a price. These documents establish a government decision and its stated goals, not actual post-implementation savings or faster examination. Both come from the same USPTO proceeding and are complementary primary evidence rather than independent corroboration. This retrospective account preserves the information available on the October coverage date. [2016-25506][2016-12571]

Source documents

  1. Trademark Fee Adjustmenthttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-10-21/html/2016-25506.htm
  2. Trademark Fee Adjustmenthttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-05-27/html/2016-12571.htm