If you are budgeting a United Kingdom trademark, there are four numbers that matter: what it costs to file, what it costs to renew, what it costs to oppose somebody else's trademark, and what it costs to record a change of owner. Everything else is either professional fees or optional.
These are the UK Intellectual Property Office's government fees on the schedule that took effect on 1 April 2026. Older articles quote lower figures because they were written against the previous schedule, so check the date on anything you read.
The United Kingdom Fees at a Glance
| What you are doing | UKIPO fee |
|---|---|
| File a trademark application, one class | £205 |
| Each further class on the same application | £60 |
| Renew a registration, one class | £245 |
| Each further class at renewal | £60 |
| Oppose an application (form TM7) | £125 (sections 5(1) and 5(2) only) or £250 (any other ground) |
| Record an assignment or change of ownership (form TM16) | £60 |
These are the government fees only: what the UKIPO charges, not the Total for a filing. See pricing for the Total, with our professional fee, the government fees, and the bank fee.
Filing: £205 for the First Class, £60 for Each One After
The United Kingdom charges per class of goods and services, so your filing fee is entirely a function of how many classes you need:
- One class: £205
- Two classes: £265
- Three classes: £325
- Five classes: £445
There is no bulk discount and no cap. Every class you add costs the same £60, forever, and you pay it again at every renewal for the life of the trademark. That is why choosing classes properly at the start is the single biggest lever on what a United Kingdom trademark costs you over ten years.
The fee is due when the application is filed. The UKIPO will not process an application until the correct fee is paid, and paying less than the schedule requires is treated as not having filed. If you add a class after filing, you pay for that class then.
Classes Are What Move the Number
Two businesses filing the same word mark can pay £205 and £445 for the same piece of paper. The difference is the class count.
A class is a category of goods or services under the Nice Classification. A coffee brand that only roasts and sells beans needs one class. The same brand that also runs cafes and sells branded mugs needs three. There is no way to buy "all classes", and filing in classes you do not trade in leaves the registration open to a non-use challenge after five years.
The useful exercise is to list what you sell now, what you will sell within three years, and nothing else. Our Class Assist tool walks through that, or the free check below will surface what your competitors filed in.
What the Filing Fee Does Not Include
The £205 buys examination and, if nothing blocks it, registration. It does not include:
- A clearance search before you file. The UKIPO will examine your trademark against absolute grounds, such as descriptiveness, but it does not refuse an application just because an earlier similar trademark exists. It notifies the earlier owner and leaves them to oppose. That means a United Kingdom application can sail through examination and still be opposed by somebody you never looked for. Run a free trademark check before you file.
- Responding to an examination report if the examiner raises an objection.
- Defending an opposition if one is filed.
- Professional fees for drafting the specification, which is the part that determines how useful the registration is.
Renewal: £245 Plus £60 per Further Class, Every Ten Years
A United Kingdom registration runs for ten years from the filing date, not from the registration date. It can then be renewed indefinitely in ten-year blocks.
- Renewal fee: £245 for one class, plus £60 for each further class.
- You can renew in the six months before the expiry date.
- If you miss it, there is a late renewal window of six months after expiry, with an additional fee on top of the renewal fee.
- After that window closes the trademark is removed from the register, and getting it back is a restoration request at the Registrar's discretion rather than a right.
The UKIPO sends a renewal reminder to the address for service on the register, which is a problem if that address is out of date. Recording a change of address is the cheapest insurance in this whole list.
Opposition: £125 or £250 to File, and a Short Window to Do It
Once an application is accepted the UKIPO publishes it. From the date of publication:
- Anyone has two months to file an opposition.
- That window can be extended to three months by filing a notice of threatened opposition before the two months run out.
- Filing the opposition itself on form TM7 costs £125 if it relies only on an earlier identical or similar trademark (sections 5(1) and 5(2)), and £250 if it includes any other ground.
Two months goes quickly if you are not watching the journal, which is why brand owners with a portfolio worth defending pay for monitoring rather than checking manually. If you are on the receiving end of an opposition, the filing fee is the smallest part of the cost. Evidence rounds and hearings are where opposition budgets go, and most oppositions settle before that point.
Assignments and Changes of Owner: £60
Recording a change of ownership on form TM16 costs £60. You need it when the trademark is sold, when it moves from a founder to the company, after a merger, or after a group restructure.
Two reasons not to leave it: an unrecorded owner can hit problems enforcing the trademark, and renewal reminders keep going to whoever is on the register. Changes of name and address are handled separately and are usually free, so there is no reason to let those drift either.
When Each Fee Falls Due
A normal, unopposed United Kingdom application looks like this:
- Day one. File and pay £205 plus £60 per further class.
- Within a few weeks. The UKIPO issues an examination report. If there is an objection, you have two months to respond, and there is no government fee for the response itself.
- Publication. The application is published and the opposition window opens.
- Around four to six months from filing, if nothing is raised, the trademark registers. No further government fee is due at registration.
- Ten years from the filing date. Renewal, £245 plus £60 per further class.
An opposition, a refusal, or a request for an extension changes that timeline, but not the fees above.
Filing a United Kingdom Trademark From Outside the United Kingdom
You do not need to be a United Kingdom business or resident to own a United Kingdom trademark. You do need an address for service in the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, or the Channel Islands for the UKIPO to correspond with, and that address goes on the public register. If you do not have one, your representative provides it.
One thing worth being clear about after Brexit: an EU trademark does not cover the United Kingdom. If you own a European Union registration and want United Kingdom protection for anything filed after the transition, that is a separate United Kingdom application at the fees above.
Budgeting a Portfolio Rather Than a Filing
If you are planning more than one United Kingdom trademark, the numbers to run are simple:
- New filings. Number of trademarks, times classes each, times £205 for the first class plus £60 per further class.
- Renewals. Which trademarks fall due in the next two years, at £245 plus £60 per further class, and which of those you would not miss. A renewal you skip on a trademark you no longer use is a saving, not a loss.
- Changes of owner. Any corporate change coming that will need a TM16 at £60.
- Defense. Whether you would oppose a conflicting filing. If yes, budget for monitoring, not just the opposition fee.
That gives you a ten-year view rather than a single invoice, which is the fair way to compare the United Kingdom against filing elsewhere.
Ready to file? See United Kingdom trademark registration for what we charge and what is included.
