The Effect of Increasing Trademark Fees on Minority and Underrepresented Business Owners

• Pages: 39-42
• Date: 01 June 2025
• Published date: 01 June 2025
• Author: Destiny Agulefo,Jayla Goodloe,Perry Jackson,Christina Williams

LANDSLIDE June/July 2025

Published in Landslide, Volume 17, Number 4, 2025. © 2025 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion

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39

The Eect of Increasing

Trademark Fees on Minority

and Underrepresented

Business Owners

Destiny Agulefo, Jayla Goodloe, Perry

Jackson, and Christina Williams

A

s students-attorneys who have participated in the Howard

University School of Law Trademark Clinic and future

law practitioners, we have thoroughly reviewed the

United States Patent and Trademark Oce (USPTO) fee changes

for f‌iscal year 2025.

On November 18, 2024, the USPTO published its ocial

rule adopting higher initial application fees, representing a 40%

increase from previous fees.1 Despite a decline in applications

following 2021, we estimate that these fee increases will aect at

least 700,000 applicants attempting to obtain nationwide trade-

mark protection.

2

The fee increases and changes present many

issues practically and theoretically. The fees counter the essence,

spirit, and purpose of trademark protections, thus hindering

innovation and economic growth. These changes will adversely

impact our future clients and the public at large.

Our primary concern is that these changes will disproportion-

ately harm communities of color and small businesses for whom

trademark registration provides critical protections and benef‌its.

While addressing our collective concerns through this commen-

tary is crucial, we also aim to present solutions or alternatives to

ensure that the USPTO can operate eciently.

Our understanding of the sensitivity and disproportionate

impact these changes can have is not just theoretical. It stems

from our direct interactions with clients through our clinic work.

We have heard from small business owners and people of color

expressing hesitancy about undertaking the USPTO’s patent and

trademark registration processes due to f‌inancial constraints and,

in some cases, an overall lack of understanding about the benef‌its

these registrations oer.

However, we have been able to conf‌idently communicate that

the USPTO’s patent and trademark registration processes are

Image: Getty Images/ferlistockphoto

Destiny Agulefo, Jayla Goodloe, Perry Jackson, and

Christina Williams are student-attorneys in the Howard

University School of Law Trademark Clinic.