Trademark renewal deadline calculator
Enter the date your mark registered. You get every maintenance deadline that follows, the six-month grace period behind each one, what the filing costs at your class count, and a calendar file to import.
A US registration lasts ten years and renews in ten-year periods, but a Section 8 declaration of continued use falls due between the fifth and sixth anniversary, and missing it cancels the registration three and a half years early.
Verified September 1, 2026
Your registration
The date the mark registered, not the date you applied.
Every USPTO maintenance fee is charged per class.
Your deadlines
Enter your registration date
It is printed on the registration certificate and shown in TSDR as the registration date. Nothing here is submitted anywhere.
Your next deadline
Government fees, next 20 years
One event when each window opens, one when it closes, with a reminder 30 days before every closing date.
Enter a date
Registered
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First filing window
Enter a date
First ten-year window
Computed dates, not a docket. Knockoff is not a law firm and this is general information, not legal advice. Confirm every date against your own record in TSDR before you rely on it.
How to read your result
Each row is one filing with three dates on it. The window opens on the day you may first file. The window closes on the last day you may file at the normal fee. The grace period runs six months past that, at a surcharge, and it is the last day the registration exists.
The first row is the one people miss, because it is not a renewal. A Section 8 declaration of continued use falls due between the fifth and sixth anniversary of registration, in the middle of a ten-year term that has years left on it. Skip it and the registration is cancelled three and a half years early. The rows after it pair that same declaration with the Section 9 renewal, which is why the fee doubles.
Section 15 is the odd row out. It is optional and skipping it costs you nothing. Five years of continuous use after registration makes the mark eligible for incontestable status, which narrows the grounds someone can use to attack it later. Most owners file it in the same envelope as the first Section 8 because the paperwork overlaps.
A row marked closed is history, not a warning. If that filing was made, the next row is the one that matters. If it was not, the registration is already gone.
How to find your registration date
Search your serial number or registration number in USPTO's Trademark Status and Document Retrieval, and read the Registration Date field. That is the date this calculator wants, not your filing date.
The registration certificate carries the same date in the top right corner. For a Madrid Protocol extension, use the date on the US certificate of extension of protection, not the date of the international registration. The two are different dates and the US deadlines run from the US one.
The USPTO does send a courtesy email reminder, and it says plainly that you must still file on time even if you never receive one. It goes out the year your window opens, a full year before your deadline, and it goes to the correspondence address on file. If the person who filed your application has left, that address is a dead inbox and the reminder lands nowhere.
How the dates are calculated
Call your registration date R. Every date on this page comes out of four lines of arithmetic and one rule about weekends.
Section 8 declaration R + 5y → R + 6y, grace to R + 6y + 6m
Section 8 + Section 9 R + 9y → R + 10y, then every 10 years
Section 15 eligibility R + 5y, optional, one-year window after any five-year stretch of use
Section 71 (Madrid) same windows, no Section 9
Both ends are inclusive. The first window opens on the fifth anniversary and closes on the sixth anniversary itself, which is a day later than several published guides put it. The ten-year windows run from the ninth anniversary to the tenth, from the nineteenth to the twentieth, and so on. They never run from the tenth to the eleventh.
The weekend rule is 37 CFR 2.196. If the last day of a window or a grace period falls on a Saturday, a Sunday, or a federal holiday in the District of Columbia, the last day moves to the next business day. This calculator computes the eleven federal holidays from the calendar, including the observed day when one falls on a weekend, and applies the roll to closing dates and grace ends only. The opening day never moves, because the rule rescues a last day and filing early was never the problem.
One edge case is handled and almost nobody prints it. A registration issued before November 16, 1989 held a twenty-year first term rather than a ten-year one, so its first renewal falls at the twentieth anniversary, and the only other filing inside that first term is the Section 8 declaration at years five to six. Enter a date from the 1980s and the rows change shape.
Fees are the schedule effective January 18, 2025, charged per class, and the table below is the same set of numbers the calculator uses. A guide that still quotes $225 for a Section 8 or $525 for a combined renewal is quoting the pre-2025 schedule.
| Filing | Electronic | Paper | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Section 8 declaration | $325 | $425 | Years 5 to 6, then years 9 to 10 |
| Section 9 renewal | $325 | $525 | Years 9 to 10, every 10 years |
| Section 8 and Section 9 combined | $650 | $950 | Years 9 to 10, every 10 years |
| Section 71 declaration, Madrid | $325 | $425 | Years 5 to 6, then every 10 years |
| Section 15 incontestability | $250 | $350 | Optional, after 5 years of use |
| Grace period surcharge | $100 | $200 | Per class, per section filed late |
| Deleting goods after an audit | $250 | Per class deleted |
Two of those rows are additions rather than published lines. The combined paper figure is the two paper fees added together. And the USPTO prints no combined grace figure at all, because a combined filing is two filings: the surcharge is charged per section, so $100 for the Section 8 plus $100 for the Section 9 is $200 per class, and $650 plus $200 is $850 per class all in. Filing the optional Section 15 alongside the first Section 8 works the same way, $325 plus $250 for $575 per class. The paper column is blank on the deletion row because 37 CFR 2.6 publishes only the electronic amount for it.
A worked example
Take a mark in two classes that registered on March 9, 2021, filed electronically.
Section 8 March 9, 2026 → March 9, 2027 $650
grace to September 9, 2027, at $200 more
Section 15 from March 9, 2026 $500, optional
Section 8 + 9 March 9, 2030 → March 10, 2031 $1,300
grace to September 9, 2031, at $400 more
The renewal window closes on March 10 rather than March 9 because the tenth anniversary lands on a Sunday in 2031, and the weekend rule moves the last day to the Monday. That single day is why the roll rule is worth computing rather than eyeballing.
Two classes double every line. One class is $325 at year six and $650 at year ten. A class you added and never sold in costs you that difference at every window for as long as the registration lives.
When people actually file
Knockoff's analysis of 2,631 Section 8 and Section 9 maintenance filings that appeared in the USPTO Trademark Daily XML files for August 19, 25 and 31, 2026 found that 13.2% were filed after the deadline had already passed, inside the paid six-month grace period, and another 30.0% arrived in the final 30 days before it.
| When the filing arrived | Share | Filings |
|---|---|---|
| 181 to 365 days early, the window had just opened | 35.5% | 934 |
| 91 to 180 days early | 9.0% | 236 |
| 31 to 90 days early | 12.4% | 325 |
| 0 to 30 days early, the final month | 30.0% | 790 |
| After the deadline, inside the paid grace period | 13.2% | 346 |
The shape is two crowds and an empty room between them. Just over a third file in the first half of the window. Another 43.2% leave it to the final 30 days or miss the date and pay the surcharge. The middle five months of a twelve-month window carry just over a fifth of the filings between them. The median filing lands 59 days before its deadline.
The reminder is not what separates the two crowds. In the USPTO daily file for August 31, 2026, Knockoff counted 6,542 registrations sent the Section 8 six-year courtesy reminder, all of them registered five years earlier in 2021, the year their filing window opened and a full year before their deadline. USPTO writes to you twelve months out, and 43.2% of filers still land in the final month or later.
Read the limits with the number. A daily file is a delta rather than a cohort, so this measures the filings that appeared in three August 2026 business days, not the share of registrations that lapse. Grace-period filings are inferred from the deadline arithmetic rather than from a fee record. Seasonality is unmeasured. Method: filings identified by USPTO event codes ES8R, E815 and E89R, each matched to the statutory window its own registration date puts it in. Refreshed quarterly.
What happens if you miss it
If the declaration is not filed within the statutory period, 37 CFR 2.164(b) says the registration will be cancelled. If the renewal is not filed within its period, 37 CFR 2.184(c) says the registration will expire. That is the whole of what the rules say happens, and it happens without anyone at the USPTO deciding it.
Your rights in the mark do not vanish with the registration, because common law rights come from use. What vanishes is everything the registration was doing for you: the nationwide presumption, the record other people search before they pick a name, and the paperwork every platform asks for.
That last one is the expensive part for a store. Amazon publishes the eligibility requirement for Brand Registry in one sentence: "To enroll a brand in Brand Registry, your brand must have an active registered trademark or a pending trademark registration." A cancelled or expired registration is not an active one. If you are working out whether you qualify in the first place, the Brand Registry readiness checker walks the requirements, and the full requirements guide covers the paths in.
The audit that can follow your filing
Filing on time is not the end of it. The USPTO runs a post-registration audit program, and a timely Section 8 or Section 71 declaration is what makes a registration eligible for it. Selection hits registrations with at least one class covering four or more goods or services, or at least two classes covering two or more each. A wide goods description written years ago is the trigger. The declaration itself already asks for one specimen showing use in commerce for each class in the registration, so the audit is a request for more of the same proof.
An audit asks you to prove use for extra items you claimed. If you cannot, you delete them, and deletion after submission costs $250 per class, with a $100 deficiency surcharge possible on top. USPTO says the program has let it cancel or remove goods or services from registrations in more than fifty percent of audited registrations, counting deletions and cancellations together. Its published statistics measure something narrower over November 2017 to September 2025: 35,942 first office actions issued, 47.59% of responses deleting goods, services or classes, and 5,107 registrations cancelled. The two figures answer different questions and do not stack.
The cheap move is to read your own goods list before you file and delete what you stopped selling. Deleting inside the declaration itself is the cheapest moment. Between maintenance filings, a deletion is a Section 7 request to amend the registration, and the USPTO charges no fee for deleting goods or services that way. Deleting after an audit has asked costs $250 per class.
The renewal notices that arrive in the mail
Your registration is a public record, and so is your address. Once a mark registers, mail starts arriving that looks official and asks for money, usually for a renewal service you did not order.
The USPTO names the styles. In its own words: "Any variation is not part of the USPTO, such as 'Patent and Trademark Bureau' or 'Trademark Renewal Service.'" It also publishes a table of the solicitation entities customers have reported, updated January 22, 2026, with the address each one mailed from. Patent and Trademark Bureau appears there at two Market Street addresses in Philadelphia. Trademark Renewal Service appears at New York and Washington DC addresses. So do Trademark Compliance Center, United States Trademark Maintenance Service and WTMR World Trademark Register. USPTO's own line on the table: none of these examples are official U.S. government or international governmental notices or offers. A name missing from the list proves nothing, because the list is what people reported.
It is prosecuted, occasionally. On September 20, 2021 a federal court in South Carolina sentenced Viktors Suhorukovs, a Latvian citizen, to more than four years in prison and over $4.5 million in restitution after he pleaded guilty to four counts of mail fraud, over two trademark renewal solicitation scams run under entities calling themselves "Patent and Trademark Office" and "Patent and Trademark Bureau."
One test settles any envelope, and it is the USPTO's own: "Official USPTO communications ... are always uploaded to TSDR under the 'documents' tab. If it's not in TSDR, it's not an official communication." The dates on this page are the second check: a notice demanding payment months outside every window on your list is not describing your registration. USPTO's caution page covers what to do if you already paid.
Common questions about trademark renewal
How often do you have to renew a trademark? +
A US registration runs for ten years and renews in ten-year periods after that, with no limit. There is one extra filing that is not a renewal: a Section 8 declaration of continued use, due between the fifth and sixth anniversary of registration.
Is there a grace period for trademark renewal? +
Yes, six months after each deadline, with a surcharge of $100 per class for each section you are filing. It is automatic and you do not request it. A combined Section 8 and Section 9 filed in grace pays both surcharges, $850 per class all in.
How much does it cost to renew a trademark? +
Filed electronically, $650 per class for the combined Section 8 and Section 9 renewal, and $325 per class for the Section 8 declaration at year six. Filing in the grace period adds $100 per class for each section. Fees effective January 18, 2025.
Can I renew my trademark online? +
Yes. Post-registration filings go through the USPTO online forms on uspto.gov, whether you reach them as the TEAS maintenance forms or through Trademark Center. Filing on paper costs $100 to $200 more per class, per section, so a combined renewal on paper is $950 rather than $650.
Do I need an attorney to renew my trademark? +
Only if your domicile is outside the United States. 37 CFR 2.11(a) requires an applicant, registrant or party to a proceeding whose domicile is not located within the United States or its territories to be represented by a qualified US attorney. A US-domiciled owner may file the declaration and the renewal without one.
How long does a trademark last? +
As long as you keep using the mark in commerce and keep filing. The registration itself lasts ten years at a time, and each renewal buys another ten. Non-use is what ends a mark, not age.
Is Trademark Renewal Service legitimate? +
It is not the USPTO. The USPTO names that style as an impostor and publishes a table of the solicitation entities customers have reported, with the address each one mailed from. Its own test: official USPTO communications are always uploaded to TSDR under the documents tab, so if it is not in TSDR it is not an official communication.
How do the deadlines work for a Madrid Protocol registration? +
A Section 66(a) extension of protection needs a Section 71 declaration on the same schedule, years five to six and then the year before every ten-year anniversary. There is no US renewal to file: the international registration is renewed at WIPO's International Bureau.
Next steps
If you are pricing a mark rather than maintaining one, the trademark cost calculator adds the application fee to the ten years of maintenance above. If you are still deciding how many classes to file in, work out which classes your products fall into first, because every fee on this page multiplies by that count.
A live registration is also the thing other people file around. Knockoff's US trademark watch reads new USPTO applications daily, compares them against your brand names, and emails you when one reads close, which is how you find out during the 30-day opposition window rather than three years later. It is a watch, not legal work: US filings only, no oppositions, no applications, and it does not docket your maintenance dates for you.
Sources
- 15 U.S.C. 1058, for the ten-year term, the year five to six window, the ten-year windows and the six-month grace period: law.cornell.edu section 1058
- 15 U.S.C. 1059, for the renewal window and its grace period: law.cornell.edu section 1059
- 15 U.S.C. 1065, for the five years of continuous use behind incontestability: law.cornell.edu section 1065
- 15 U.S.C. 1141k, for the Section 71 windows running from the US certificate of extension: law.cornell.edu section 1141k
- 37 CFR 2.160, for the anniversary anchors and the per-class grace surcharge: ecfr.gov 2.160
- 37 CFR 2.181 and 2.182, for the twenty-year term before November 16, 1989 and the renewal window anchored to the expiration date: ecfr.gov 2.181, ecfr.gov 2.182
- 37 CFR 2.196, for the weekend and federal holiday roll on the last day: ecfr.gov 2.196
- 37 CFR 2.6 and 37 CFR 7.6, for every per-class fee and the paper and electronic split: ecfr.gov 2.6, ecfr.gov 7.6
- 37 CFR 7.36 and 7.41, for the Section 71 anchors and renewal of the international registration at WIPO's International Bureau: ecfr.gov 7.36, ecfr.gov 7.41
- 37 CFR 2.11, for the requirement that a registrant domiciled outside the United States be represented by a qualified US attorney: ecfr.gov 2.11
- 37 CFR 2.161 and 2.164, for the specimen required in each class and for cancellation when the declaration is not filed: ecfr.gov 2.161, ecfr.gov 2.164
- 37 CFR 2.184, for expiration when the renewal is not filed: ecfr.gov 2.184
- USPTO trademark fee schedule, effective January 18, 2025, for the live per-class figures: uspto.gov fee information
- USPTO, keeping your registration alive, for the deadline schedule and the courtesy reminder caveat: uspto.gov keeping your registration alive
- USPTO post-registration audit program and its published statistics, for the selection criteria, the $250 deletion fee, the more than fifty percent line and the 2017 to 2025 totals: uspto.gov audit program
- USPTO, caution on misleading notices, for the solicitation language and the impostor styles it names: uspto.gov caution notices
- USPTO, examples of fraudulent and misleading solicitations, updated January 22, 2026, for the named entities and their addresses: uspto.gov solicitation examples
- USPTO, criminal conviction in a trademark renewal solicitation scam, for the 2021 sentence and the restitution: uspto.gov criminal conviction
- Amazon Brand Services, for the quoted Brand Registry eligibility requirement, article dated August 8, 2025: brandservices.amazon.com eligibility, corroborated at sell.amazon.com brand registry
- USPTO Trademark Daily XML files for August 19, 25 and 31, 2026, product TRTDXFAP, for Knockoff's own filing-timing counts: data.uspto.gov
Every figure on this page was verified September 1, 2026. Fees are the schedule effective January 18, 2025 and are charged per class. Knockoff is not a law firm and this is general information, not legal advice.
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