Reduced Filing Fees for "TEAS Plus" Trademark Applications Start July 18

Effective July 18, 2005, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Office) is reducing trademark filing fees under certain circumstances when the applicant uses the Trademark Electronic Application System ("TEAS") to file an application for registration on the Principal Register under section 1 and/or section 44 of the Trademark Act. The reduced fee option will not apply to applications filed pursuant to section 66(a) of the Act, because they cannot be filed through TEAS.

In order to qualify for the reduced filing fee,

1. The application must meet certain filing requirements (discussed below) in addition to those required in order to obtain a filing date;
2. The applicant must file certain communications(discussed below) regarding the application through TEAS; and
3. The applicant must agree to receive communications concerning the application by e-mail.

The applicant will also be required to pay an additional processing fee if, at any time during examination of the application, the Office determines that those conditions are not met. The new fees will be

(i) For filing an application on paper, per class—$375.00,

(ii) For filing an application through TEAS, per class—$325.00,

(iii) For filing a TEAS Plus application, per class—$275.00, and

(iv) If required, additional processing fee, per class—$50.00.

TEAS applications that qualify for the reduced fee option will be referred to as ‘‘TEAS Plus’’ applications. The requirements for TEAS Plus applications include:

(1) The applicant’s name and address;
(2) The applicant’s legal entity;
(3) The citizenship of an individual applicant, or the state or country of incorporation or organization of a juristic applicant;
(4) If the applicant is a partnership, the names and citizenship of the applicant’s general partners;
(5) A name and address for correspondence;
(6) An e-mail address for correspondence, and an authorization for the Office to send correspondence concerning the application to the applicant or applicant’s attorney by email;
(7) One or more bases for filing. If more than one basis is set forth, the applicant must comply with the requirements for each asserted basis;
(8) Correctly classified goods and/or services, with an identification of goods
and/or services from the Office’s Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual, available through the TEAS Plus form and at http://www.uspto.gov. In an application based on section 44 of the Act, the scope of the goods and/or services covered by the section 44 basis may not exceed the scope of the goods and/or services in the foreign application or registration;
(9) If the application contains goods and/or services in more than one class, compliance with § 2.86;
(10) A filing fee for each class of goods and/or services;
(11) A verified statement that meets the requirements of § 2.33, dated and signed by a person properly authorized to sign on behalf of the applicant;
(12) A clear drawing of the mark. If the applicant does not claim standard characters, the applicant must attach a digitized image of the mark in .jpg format. If the mark includes color, the drawing must show the mark in color;
(13) If the mark is in standard characters, a mark comprised of only characters in the Office’s standard character set, currently available at http://www.uspto.gov, typed in the appropriate field of the TEAS Plus form;
(14) If the mark includes color, a statement naming the color(s) and describing where the color(s) appears on the mark, and a claim that the color(s) is a feature of the mark;
(15) If the mark is not in standard characters, a description of the mark;
(16) If the mark includes non-English wording, an English translation of that
wording;
(17) If the mark includes non-Latin characters, a transliteration of those characters;
(18) If the mark includes an individual’s name or portrait, either (i) a statement
that identifies the living individual whose name or likeness the mark comprises and written consent of the individual, or (ii) a statement that the name or portrait does not identify a living individual;
(19) If the applicant owns one or more registrations for the same mark, a claim of ownership of the registration(s) identified by the registration number(s), pursuant to § 2.36; and
(20) If the application is a concurrent use application, compliance with § 2.42.

TEAS Plus applicants must file the following communications through TEAS:

• Responses to Office actions (except notices of appeal under section 20 of the
  Trademark Act);
• Requests to change the correspondence address and owner’s address;
• Appointment and/or revocation of power of attorney;
• Appointment and/or revocation of domestic representative;
• Preliminary amendments;
• Amendments to allege use under section 1(c) of the Act or statements of use under section 1(d) of the Act;
• Request(s) for extensions of time to file a statement of use under section 1(d) of the Act; and
• Request(s) to delete a section 1(b) basis.