How to trademark a name: the USPTO process step by step, what it costs in 2026, why applications get rejected, and what registration actually protects

A business name you can't protect is a business name you'll eventually lose, either to a competitor who adopts it or to a cease-and-desist from someone who registered it first. Trademarking a name is how you convert "the name we use" into "the name we own," and the federal registration process is more mechanical than most founders expect: a search, an application, an examination, and a waiting period, with the outcome mostly determined by decisions made before filing.

Here is the complete process, current costs, the rejection traps, and what registration actually buys you.

Do you already own trademark rights without registering?

Yes, partially. In the United States, trademark rights arise from use, not registration: the moment you use a distinctive name in commerce to identify your goods or services, you acquire common-law trademark rights in the geographic area where you actually operate. This is why the TM symbol exists; anyone can use it to assert a claim over an unregistered mark.

Common-law rights are real but geographically stunted. They cover your actual trading area and nothing beyond it, which means a business with the same name can lawfully operate in another region, and if they federally register first, they can freeze you inside your existing footprint. Federal registration through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office converts local, hard-to-prove rights into nationwide priority dating from your filing date, a legal presumption of ownership and validity, the right to use ®, access to federal court and statutory remedies, the ability to record the mark with Customs to block counterfeit imports, and a listing in the USPTO database that deters others from adopting your name.

Also clear up the most common confusion at the start: registering an LLC or corporation name with your state is not a trademark. State entity registration only prevents identical entity names in that state's records; it confers no brand protection at all. Plenty of businesses have formed an LLC under a name that infringed someone's trademark and learned the difference by certified mail.

How do you search whether a name is available?

Run the clearance search before you fall in love with the name, and before you spend on branding. The search has two layers.

The first layer is the USPTO's trademark search system, which covers all federal registrations and pending applications. Search your exact name, then spelling variations, phonetic equivalents, and translations, because the legal standard is likelihood of confusion, not identity. "Kwik Klean" can block "Quick Clean." Search within your goods and services categories and adjacent ones; identical marks can coexist in unrelated industries (Delta Air Lines and Delta Faucet), but related industries collide.

The second layer is common-law use: business directories, state entity databases, domain registrations, app stores, and general web and social searches. An unregistered senior user in your market can't be found in the USPTO database, but their prior use can still defeat your registration or your right to use the name in their territory.

The honest limitation: clearance searching is judgment work. The database query is easy; assessing whether an examining attorney would find two marks confusingly similar for related goods is the part trademark attorneys are actually paid for, and a $300 to $600 professional search opinion is cheap insurance against building a brand you'll be forced to abandon.

What does it cost to trademark a name in 2026?

The USPTO's base application fee is $350 per class of goods or services, under the fee structure that took effect in January 2025. The per-class structure matters: classes are the 45 international categories of goods and services, and you pay for each one you claim. A clothing brand that also sells online courses is in at least two classes, so $700 in base fees.

The 2025 restructure replaced the old two-tier TEAS system with the single base fee plus surcharges for applications that create extra examination work: $100 per class for applications missing required information, $200 per class for writing custom goods/services descriptions instead of selecting from the USPTO's pre-approved Trademark ID Manual, and $200 per additional 1,000 characters of custom description. A careful filer who uses the ID Manual pays $350 per class, period; a sloppy or custom-heavy filing can cost hundreds more.

Intent-to-use applicants pay more over the application's life: $150 per class to file the eventual statement of use, and $125 per class for each six-month extension (up to five). Attorney fees for a straightforward search-and-file engagement typically run $500 to $2,000 flat. Maintenance costs come later: a declaration of continued use between years five and six ($325 per class), and combined renewal filings every ten years.

How do you file the application?

The application is filed electronically through the USPTO's Trademark Center, and its substance is five decisions:

The mark format: a standard character mark protects the name itself in any font or styling (broadest protection, the right default for a name), while a design mark protects a specific logo or stylization. If the name is the asset, register the standard character mark first.

The owner: the person or entity that controls the mark, typically your LLC or corporation rather than you personally if the business owns the brand.

The goods and services: what you actually sell under the name, described using the Trademark ID Manual entries where possible (avoiding the surcharge and speeding examination). This defines the scope of your rights; too narrow leaves gaps, too broad invites rejection and maintenance problems, since you must actually use the mark on everything listed.

The filing basis: use in commerce (Section 1(a)) if you're already selling under the name, which requires a specimen (a label, packaging, website screenshot showing the mark used with the goods or services); or intent to use (Section 1(b)) if you haven't launched, which secures your priority date now and requires proof of use before registration issues.

The classes: each category of goods/services, each with its own fee.

File, pay, and you'll receive a serial number. Your priority date is locked as of filing.

What happens after you file?

The waiting. The USPTO assigns your application to an examining attorney roughly 8 to 10 months after filing (the backlog fluctuates). The examiner reviews the application for conflicts with registered and pending marks and for substantive problems like descriptiveness.

If the examiner finds issues, you receive an office action, a formal letter you must respond to within three months (extendable once for a fee). Roughly two-thirds of applications receive at least one office action, most commonly procedural fixes, but often substantive refusals that require legal argument.

If examination clears, the mark publishes in the Trademark Official Gazette, opening a 30-day window in which anyone who believes they'd be harmed can oppose registration. Oppositions are uncommon for well-cleared marks. After the window closes: registration for use-based applications, or a notice of allowance for intent-to-use applicants, who then have six months (extendable to three years) to file the statement of use.

Total timeline for a smooth application: 12 to 18 months. With office actions or extensions, two years is routine.

Why do trademark applications get rejected?

Two refusals account for most substantive rejections. Likelihood of confusion (Section 2(d)) means the examiner found a registered or earlier-filed mark that's confusingly similar for related goods or services; this is precisely what the clearance search exists to catch before you file. Mere descriptiveness (Section 2(e)) means the name simply describes the goods, their qualities, or their geographic origin: "Cold and Creamy" for ice cream, "Speedy Delivery" for couriers. Descriptive terms can't be registered on the Principal Register without proof they've acquired distinctiveness through years of use.

The strength spectrum is worth internalizing when choosing a name: made-up words (Kodak, Xerox) are the strongest marks; arbitrary real words applied to unrelated goods (Apple for computers) are nearly as strong; suggestive names that hint without describing (Netflix) are registrable; descriptive names are weak and often refused; and generic terms (calling your bakery "Bakery") can never be trademarks. The registrability problem and the marketing instinct pull opposite directions, and the businesses that win choose distinctive over descriptive.

Surnames, geographic terms, and names of living individuals without consent draw their own refusals. So does a specimen that doesn't show real commercial use, a chronic problem for applicants who mock up a webpage to manufacture a specimen.

How long does a trademark last, and what kills it?

A federal registration lasts as long as you maintain it, potentially forever. The maintenance schedule: a declaration of continued use between the fifth and sixth year after registration, then combined renewal filings every ten years. Miss a deadline and the registration cancels, full stop; the USPTO does not send reminders to unrepresented owners reliably enough to bet on.

Beyond paperwork, marks die two substantive deaths. Abandonment: stop using the mark with intent not to resume (three years of nonuse is presumptive abandonment) and the rights evaporate. Genericide: a mark so successful it becomes the common word for the product (aspirin, escalator, thermos all died this way) loses protection, which is why brand owners police usage like "photoshopped."

Registration also doesn't enforce itself. The USPTO blocks confusingly similar registrations, but stopping infringing use in the market is on you: monitoring, cease-and-desist letters, and litigation where necessary. A registration you never enforce erodes.

Trademark protection pairs with the other intellectual property registrations a business typically needs; the copyright registration process protects your creative content the way the trademark protects your name, and the two systems cover entirely different assets. For the name itself: search hard, file carefully in the right classes, use the ID Manual descriptions, calendar the maintenance deadlines, and treat the ® you eventually earn as an asset that appreciates with every year of use.