How Much Does a Trademark Attorney Cost?
Attorneys charge $750–$2,000 for a single-class filing. DIY costs $250–$350. Here's when the extra spend pays off.
Your Situation
DIY Filing
File it yourself via TEAS
Total Cost
$250
TEAS Plus filing fee
Estimated Time Investment
5-15 hours
Research, filing, monitoring
Rejection Risk
What You Get
- ✓ Full control over the process
- ✓ Lowest upfront cost
- ✓ Learn the trademark process
- ✗ No legal guidance on conflicts
- ✗ Must handle office actions yourself
- ✗ Higher risk of costly mistakes
With Attorney
Professional trademark filing
Total Cost
$1,000
Filing fee + attorney fee
Your Time Investment
2-4 hours
Initial consultation + review
Rejection Risk
What You Get
- ✓ Comprehensive trademark search
- ✓ Properly drafted application
- ✓ Office action response included
- ✓ Legal advice on registrability
- ✓ Monitoring and deadline management
- ✗ Higher upfront cost
Our Recommendation
The Hidden Cost of Rejection
If your application is rejected, you may need to:
$500-$2,000
Attorney to respond to office action
3-6 months
Additional delay
$250-$350
New filing fee if abandoned
Related tools
Updated April 2026 | Based on industry averages
What Actually Determines Your Rejection Risk
37% of trademark applications receive an Office Action from the USPTO — most commonly for likelihood of confusion with existing marks. DIY filers face a 47% rejection rate versus 28% for attorney-filed applications. A professional clearance search costs $300–$800 but reduces the risk of a costly rejection that could require rebranding after launch.
The 15% DIY rejection rate isn't evenly distributed. Filers in crowded categories face much higher odds of an office action. Class 9 (electronics, software), Class 25 (clothing), and Class 43 (restaurants, food service) each have massive numbers of registered marks. A generic-sounding name in any of these categories is almost certain to hit a likelihood-of-confusion refusal from the USPTO examining attorney.
Distinctive, invented marks in less crowded categories fare much better. A made-up word for a niche industrial product in Class 7 has a genuinely strong shot at a smooth DIY filing. The same made-up word applied to athletic wear in Class 25 will be examined more skeptically because every clothing brand since 1980 has tried to register a coined word.
What an Attorney Actually Does
A trademark attorney does three things a DIY filer can't easily replicate. First, they run a comprehensive clearance search. Not just the USPTO database, but state registrations, common law uses, domain names, and industry directories. A conflict in any of these channels can generate an office action or a cease-and-desist letter later. Second, they draft goods and services descriptions that are specific enough to protect your actual use, but broad enough to cover adjacent uses you might not have thought of. Third, if an office action arrives, they know which arguments work with which types of rejections.
The attorney fee for a simple single-class filing runs $750 to $1,500 depending on the firm and the complexity of the clearance search. That sounds steep next to a $250 filing fee. But an office action response from an attorney costs $500 to $2,000. Responding badly to an office action, or missing the response deadline entirely, means losing your filing fee with nothing to show for it.
DIY makes sense for simple marks in uncrowded spaces where the owner has time to research the process carefully. Attorney filing makes sense for competitive categories, important brands, and anyone who doesn't want to spend 15 hours learning trademark law to save $750.