■ StartBusiness24 Guide — Trademarks

How to Trademark a Business Name — The Federal Path, Step by Step

A trademark is how customers tell your business from everyone else's — and federal registration is how you protect that name across the whole country. Here is the real path, with the real fees off the USPTO's own schedule, and the one legal test that decides most applications explained in plain words.

This guide is education, not legal advice — IP filings are a place where a patent/trademark attorney earns their fee.

What a trademark actually is

The USPTO defines a trademark as any word, phrase, symbol, design, or combination of these that identifies your goods or services — it's how customers recognize you in the marketplace and distinguish you from competitors. For most small businesses, the mark is one of three things: the business name, a logo, or a slogan. (The same thing for services is called a service mark; the rules run together.)

Two things owners get wrong at the start. First, you don't own a word in the abstract — your rights attach to the name as used with your specific goods or services, so the same word can honestly belong to different businesses in unrelated fields. Second, you build some rights just by using a name in commerce; registration is what strengthens those rights, puts the country on notice, and earns you the symbol in the next paragraph.

• ™ (or SM for services) means "we claim this as our mark." You may use it any time you claim a mark as yours — no application, no registration, no permission needed. It is a claim, not a government stamp.
• ® means the USPTO has registered the mark. It may only be used after a federal registration actually issues — never while an application is pending, and a state registration does not earn it.

The test that decides most applications: likelihood of confusion

The USPTO calls likelihood of confusion the most common reason for refusing registration, and it works like this: if your mark is confusingly similar to a mark already registered or in use, and the goods or services are related, customers could reasonably think the two come from the same source — and the application gets refused. The marks do not have to be identical: similar sound, similar look, similar meaning, or the same overall impression can each be enough. Read the USPTO's own walkthrough: Likelihood of confusion — USPTO.

That is also why no honest guide or tool can stamp your name "approved" in advance. The examining attorney runs this test against the federal record after you file. Your job before filing is to search well enough that you are not paying fees to walk into a conflict you could have seen.

The 5 steps

• 1. Search first — before you file anything. Run the four checks in our name guide: state entity records, the USPTO's Trademark Search at tmsearch.uspto.gov, domain and handles, and a common-law web search. Search close spellings and sound-alikes, not just your exact name — confusion is judged on sound and impression, not only spelling. (TESS, the old search system, was retired on November 30, 2023.)
• 2. Pick your classes of goods and services. Trademark rights live inside categories called classes. The system has 45 classes — classes 1–34 cover goods, classes 35–45 cover services — and your application lists the exact goods or services your mark covers, class by class. Fees are charged per class, so every class you add is another application fee. The USPTO's Trademark ID Manual holds the standard wording the USPTO accepts for identifying goods and services; use its wording for your list, for the reason in step 3.
• 3. File the federal application in Trademark Center. Federal trademark applications are filed online with the USPTO in its Trademark Center system. The base application fee is $350 per class (official USPTO fee schedule). Know the surcharge traps the schedule lists: +$100 per class if the application is missing required information; +$200 per class if you describe your goods or services in the free-form text box instead of picking Trademark ID Manual entries; and +$200 for each additional 1,000 characters in that free-form entry, per affected class. Filing fees are generally not refunded — even if registration is refused. Not selling under the name yet? An intent-to-use application starts the process, and when the mark enters use you file a statement of use at $150 per class (six-month extensions of that deadline run $125 per class). Start here: Apply for a trademark — USPTO.
• 4. Examining-attorney review, then publication. Your application gets a serial number, and an examining attorney reviews it against federal law and the existing record — on the USPTO's current timeline, expect months before the review begins, not days. If the attorney finds a problem, you get a letter called an office action and three months to respond. If the application is approved, your mark is published in the USPTO's Trademark Official Gazette, and anyone who believes registration would harm their business has 30 days to file an opposition. If nobody opposes, the mark registers — on a clean run, roughly three months after publication.
• 5. Registration — then keep it alive. A registration is not a one-and-done filing. You must keep using the mark, and you must file maintenance documents on the USPTO's schedule: a Section 8 declaration of continued use between the 5th and 6th years after registration ($325 per class); a combined Section 8 declaration + Section 9 renewal between the 9th and 10th years, then every 10 years ($650 per class combined); and the optional Section 15 declaration ($250 per class) once the mark has been in continuous use for five years. Each window has a six-month grace period, for an extra $100 per class. Miss the filings and the registration is canceled. Current fees: USPTO trademark fee information and the full USPTO fee schedule — the USPTO adjusts fees over time, so confirm the schedule before you file.

The cheaper, narrower option: state registration

Most states also register trademarks, usually through the Secretary of State's office, for a lower filing fee than the federal application (each state sets its own fee and form). What you get is narrower: protection inside that one state only, and it never earns the ® symbol. For a business that will only ever operate in one state, it can be a reasonable first step; for a business selling online or planning to grow across state lines, the federal filing is the one that matches the ambition. The USPTO keeps a list of every state's trademark office links.