Hi, I'm Anthony Verna, managing partner, Verna Law. You can see us on the web at vernalaw.com. So 2021 is coming up - Happy New Year! That's why we're dressed casually: It's the holiday season.!



However, the patent and trademark office has said big changes come in 2021. Those big changes? New fees! Thanks, federal government, for raising our fees in the middle of a pandemic, in a bad economy.



However, not much we can do with that. The patent and trademark office is raising rates. Come January 1st, a standard patent and trademark office trademark application is going up to $350 per class.



Now, a standard application is when an applicant actually types in his or her or its own goods and services description. A plus application is when a set of goods and services are selected from already written phrases. And usually this is only good for, you know, apparel, uh, uh, home where things where you can really list the goods and services as a list.That's going up to $250 per class, which is up from $225 per class. So again, standard application is up to $350 from 275, and a plus application is up to $250 from $225. And, if you are looking to oppose an application or cancel a registration, well, that's going up from $400 for class to $600 per class.



So to file a case in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board is now going to cost more than filing in federal district court, when you're asking for monetary damages.



Yeah, I have to say, I think there's something about that that stinks a little bit, but the, again, that's what we've been handed.



There's also going to be fees that didn't exist before in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. So for example, if you're filing a 90 day extension, that's going to be $200.If you're going to be filing a 60 day extension requests, that's going to be $400 an application. And if you're going to be filing an extension of time to file an appeal brief, it's going to be a hundred dollars per application and a new fee for, uh, filing a, uh, an oral argument hearing. That's right. The middle of your case, you would like an oral argument hearing. It's 500, hundred dollars per proceeding if you want the oral argument.



So we have new fees from the patent and trademark office.



What I would say is budget accordingly to your needs. Thanks very much.



Again, my name is Anthony Verna, managing partner, Verna Law. You can see it right there. Visit us at vernalaw.com. I look forward to answering all your questions again.