How long does a trademark take?

The short answer

Plan on roughly 12 to 18 months from the day your application is filed to the day the registration certificate arrives, for an application filed on use in commerce that draws no serious objection. Applications filed before the mark is in use take longer, because registration waits until you are selling and have filed a Statement of Use.

Those figures are typical, not promised. The USPTO publishes how long applications are currently waiting on its trademarks dashboard, and the numbers move with the office's workload and staffing. When the dashboard and this guide disagree, trust the dashboard; we check the guide against it, most recently on September 4, 2026.

The stages, in order

1. Filing. Trademarky files within two business days of a completed intake. The USPTO assigns a serial number at once, and the application appears in its public records within a few days.
2. The queue. Nothing happens for a while. The wait for an examining attorney to pick up a new application has often been six to eight months in recent years, and it is the single largest block of time in the process.
3. Examination. The examining attorney checks the application for conflicts with earlier marks, for descriptiveness and for formal problems such as the wording of the goods or the specimen. If everything is in order, the mark is approved for publication. If not, the USPTO sends an office action.
4. The office action, if there is one. You have three months to respond, or six with a paid extension. A well-argued response can resolve the issue; the examining attorney may also issue a second, final action. Each exchange adds a few months.
5. Publication. The mark is published in the USPTO's Official Gazette for 30 days. Anyone who believes the registration would harm them can oppose it, or ask for more time to decide. If nobody objects, the application moves on.
6. Registration. For an application filed on use in commerce, the certificate usually issues within a few months after the opposition period closes. For an intent-to-use application, the USPTO instead sends a notice of allowance, and registration waits for your Statement of Use.

Intent to use adds a step

If you file before you are selling under the mark (an intent-to-use application, under Section 1(b)), the process pauses after publication. The USPTO sends a notice of allowance, and you then have six months to file a Statement of Use showing the mark in real use, with a specimen. If you are not ready, you can buy more time in six-month extensions, up to a total of 36 months after the notice of allowance, each with a USPTO fee. Once the Statement of Use is accepted, the certificate follows in a few months.

This makes intent-to-use applications slower to register but no slower to protect: the priority date is still the filing date. Intent to use vs use in commerce covers when each basis makes sense; the FAQ has the short version.

What slows an application down

• An office action. A refusal based on a similar earlier mark, or on a descriptive name, needs a written legal argument and adds months even when it succeeds.
• A vague or over-broad description of goods and services. The examining attorney will ask you to fix it, and every request for correction is a round trip.
• A specimen that does not show the mark in use as claimed. A mock-up, a printer's proof or a web page that does not actually offer the goods for sale is refused, and the fix is another round trip.
• A conflicting application filed earlier. Yours can be suspended until the earlier one registers or dies, which can take a year or more.
• An opposition after publication. Proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board run on their own calendar and can take a long time.
• Late or incomplete responses. A missed deadline abandons the application; reviving it costs a fee and time, and sometimes the application cannot be revived at all.
• The USPTO's own workload. The queue before first examination has ranged from a few months to well over a year in the last decade.

What you can do while you wait

• Use the TM symbol next to your mark. It signals a claim of rights and needs no registration. Do not use ® until the certificate issues; using it early is unlawful and can hurt the application.
• Keep dated proof of your first use: photographs of labels and packaging, screenshots of the live store with dates, invoices. You will need a specimen for a Statement of Use and again at every maintenance filing.
• Keep your address and email current with the USPTO. Deadlines run whether or not the letter reached you.
• Ignore official-looking invoices from private companies. Only correspondence from the USPTO itself, sent from a uspto.gov address, matters. The USPTO keeps a page of misleading notices it has seen.
• Plan launches, packaging and marketing knowing that the application, not the certificate, gives you your place in line.

Can you speed it up?

Not by paying more. The USPTO has no general expedited examination for trademarks. A petition to make special exists only for narrow situations, such as pending litigation or a documented infringement, and it has to be justified.

What you can control is the number of round trips. File on use in commerce if you are already selling, so there is no Statement of Use step. Use the USPTO's ID Manual wording for your goods and services. Attach a specimen that plainly shows the mark on the goods or in advertising for the services. Have the application reviewed before it is filed, and answer any office action promptly and completely. An application that never draws an objection is the fastest kind there is.

A clean search before filing is the single biggest time saver. The check takes seconds. Check my trademark for free

Questions about this topic

Can I pay the USPTO to examine my trademark application faster?

No. The USPTO offers no paid expedited examination for trademark applications. A petition to make special is possible in narrow circumstances, such as pending litigation or a documented infringement, and must be justified. The best way to keep an application moving is to file it clean and answer any office action quickly.

What happens if I miss the deadline to respond to an office action?

The application is abandoned. You can petition to revive it, for a USPTO fee, within two months of the notice of abandonment if the delay was unintentional. After that, the usual remedy is a new application with a new filing date, which means a new place in line.

What can happen during the 30-day publication period?

Anyone who believes the registration would harm them can file an opposition with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, or ask for an extension of time to decide. If nobody does, the application moves on to registration or, for intent-to-use applications, to a notice of allowance.

Related guides

• How much does a trademark cost?: What a U.S. trademark costs: the $350 USPTO fee per class, attorney fees, the later filings that keep a registration alive, and what is refundable.
• Intent to use vs use in commerce: choosing your filing basis: Section 1(a) vs 1(b): what use in commerce means, when to file before launch, the Notice of Allowance, and Statement of Use fees and extensions.
• Trademark office actions: what they are and how to respond: What a USPTO office action is, the three-month response deadline, the most common refusals, how a response is prepared, and what happens if you miss it.

Contact

Trademarky, LLC, 78 SW 7th St, 5th FL, Miami, FL 33130. (305) 562-6800, hello@trademarky.io. Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm ET. Available by appointment.

This free check is an AI-assisted preliminary screening against known U.S. trademark records. It is not a comprehensive clearance search and not legal advice. Only a licensed attorney can advise you on whether to file.