You trademark a business name by filing an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) through its online system, Trademark Center, and paying $350 per class of goods or services. Knowing how to trademark a business name comes down to six steps: search for conflicts, pick your classes, choose a filing basis, prepare proof of use, file, and answer the examiner. The first four steps happen before you submit anything, and some mistakes made there, such as listing the wrong owner, cannot be fixed after filing.
A federal registration covers the name across the United States for the goods or services you list. Forming an LLC or corporation with your state gives you no trademark rights in the name. If you are still deciding whether registration is worth the cost for your business, read whether you should trademark your business name first.
Before You Trademark a Business Name, Confirm It Can Be Registered
The USPTO refuses names that fail the tests in Section 2 of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. 1052). These are the grounds business names run into:
- The name is likely to be confused with a mark someone else already registered or applied for, for related goods or services.
- The name is merely descriptive: it describes what you sell or a feature of it, such as “Fresh Bakery” for a bakery.
- The name is generic, the common word for the product itself.
- The name is primarily merely a surname, such as “Miller’s” for a hardware store.
- The name identifies a living person who has not given written consent.
Invented and arbitrary names are the easiest to register. “Kodak” is a made-up word, and “Apple” has nothing to do with computers. Suggestive names, which hint at a quality without describing it, usually register too. A descriptive name can register only after it has acquired distinctiveness, meaning customers see it as your brand. The USPTO may accept five years of substantially exclusive and continuous use as evidence of that.
If your name is descriptive and you have just launched, renaming now costs less than arguing with an examiner later.
Step 1: Run a Clearance Search
A clearance search looks for existing marks that are the same as or similar to yours, for goods or services close to yours. Start with the USPTO’s free trademark search system, then search state registrations, domain names, and the web for businesses using the name without a registration. Those unregistered users can have rights in their area that predate yours.
Check similar spellings, sound-alikes, and translations as well as exact matches. The examiner will compare the overall impression of the marks and the relatedness of the goods, so “Brite Path” for coaching can conflict with “Bright Path” for consulting. The guide to running a trademark clearance search walks through the full process.
Step 2: Choose Your Classes and Describe Your Goods or Services
The USPTO sorts goods and services into 45 classes, and you pay a fee for each class in your application. A coffee roaster that sells beans (Class 30) and runs a café (Class 43) needs two classes.
For each class, you write an identification: a plain description of what you sell under the name. Pick your wording from the USPTO’s Trademark ID Manual when you can, because a free-form description adds $200 per class.
| USPTO fee | Amount per class |
|---|---|
| Base application fee | $350 |
| Missing required information surcharge | $100 |
| Free-form description instead of the ID Manual | $200 |
| Each extra 1,000 characters in a free-form description | $200 |
List everything you sell or plan to sell under the name. After filing you can narrow or clarify the identification, but you cannot add to it or broaden it. See how trademark classes work for help choosing, and how much it costs to trademark a name for full budgets that include attorney fees and later filings.
Step 3: Decide on Use in Commerce or Intent to Use
Every application needs a filing basis, and for a US business the choice is between two sections of 15 U.S.C. 1051.
| Use in commerce, Section 1(a) | Intent to use, Section 1(b) | |
|---|---|---|
| When it fits | You already sell goods or provide services under the name across state lines or to out-of-state customers | You have a bona fide plan to use the name but have not started |
| What you file with the application | A specimen and your dates of first use | A sworn statement of your intent |
| Extra filing before registration | None | A Statement of Use after the USPTO issues a notice of allowance, $150 per class |
| Deadline to start using the name | Already met | 6 months after the notice of allowance, extendable in 6-month steps (up to five extensions at $125 per class), for a maximum of 36 months |
Intent to use lets you claim a filing date before launch, at the cost of one more filing and fee before the name registers. Once the registration issues, the filing date counts as nationwide use, which gives you priority over anyone who started using a similar name after that date.
Step 4: Prepare Your Specimen
A specimen is proof that you use the name as a brand in the marketplace. You need one per class with a use-in-commerce application, or later with the Statement of Use.
For goods, acceptable specimens include a photo of the product, its tag or label, or its packaging showing the name. A web page selling the goods works if it shows the name near the product along with a price and a way to buy, such as a shopping cart button. For services, a screenshot of your website, an ad, or a brochure works if it shows the name while advertising or providing the services.
Every web page specimen must include its URL and the date you accessed it, either on the screenshot or in the fields for them in the application. The USPTO rejects mockups, digitally altered images, printer’s proofs, and pages for goods that are only available for pre-order.
Step 5: File on the USPTO Website
Trademark Center is the only way to file a new application; the older TEAS application forms were retired on January 18, 2025. Before you can file, you need a USPTO.gov account with verified identity. Verification through ID.me takes about 15 minutes online, or you can mail a notarized paper form and wait two to three weeks for processing. Owners who file through an attorney do not need to verify their own identity.
What Information the USPTO Application Asks For
Have these ready before you log in:
- The owner’s legal name and entity type (individual, LLC, corporation, partnership), plus the state or country where the entity is organized or the individual’s citizenship
- The owner’s domicile address, which is the owner’s principal home or principal place of business
- The name exactly as you want it registered
- The mark type: standard characters for the words alone, or special form for a stylized or designed version
- Your classes and goods or services identifications
- Your filing basis, plus dates of first use and specimens if you are filing under Section 1(a)
- A signed declaration that the facts are true and that you know of no one else with a better right to the name
- Payment for every class
If your LLC uses the name, the LLC should be the applicant, not you personally. An application filed in the name of someone who does not own the mark is void, and the USPTO will not let you fix it by amendment. You would have to file a new application and pay again.
For a business name, standard characters usually give the broadest protection because they cover the words in any font, color, or style. Filing a logo is a separate decision covered in the guide to how to trademark a logo. Taglines have their own rules; see how to trademark a phrase.
Applicants domiciled outside the United States must file through a US-licensed attorney.
Step 6: Track the Application and Respond to the Examiner
After you file, the application gets a serial number, and you can check its status in the USPTO’s Trademark Status and Document Retrieval system (TSDR). An examining attorney reviews it after several months. The article on how long it takes to get a trademark has the stage-by-stage timeline.
If the examiner finds a problem, you receive an office action, a letter explaining the refusal or the corrections needed. You have three months to respond, and you can buy one three-month extension for $125. If you miss the deadline, the USPTO declares the application abandoned. Minor requests, such as fixing the wording of your identification, are often simple to answer yourself. A refusal for likelihood of confusion or descriptiveness needs legal argument and evidence; the guide to responding to a trademark office action explains the common refusals and when to bring in help.
If the examiner approves the name, it is published in the Official Gazette. Anyone who believes they would be harmed has 30 days to oppose it or ask for more time. With no opposition, a use-based application registers, and an intent-to-use application receives its notice of allowance.
Can You Trademark Your Own Name?
Yes, if customers see it as a brand and it clears two rules.
First, a name that is primarily merely a surname, such as “Johnson” or “Johnson’s,” is refused unless you can show acquired distinctiveness. The examiner considers whether the surname is rare, whether it is the surname of someone connected with the applicant, whether it has another recognized meaning, whether it looks and sounds like a surname, and whether the stylization creates a separate impression.
Second, a name that identifies a particular living person needs that person’s written consent. If the name is your own and you are the applicant or you sign the application, the USPTO presumes consent. If you name your bakery after a living relative or a co-founder, you need a signed consent statement from that person.
Mistakes That Get Business Name Applications Refused
Watch for four errors that sink business name applications:
- Adding a word of praise to a descriptive name, such as “Best Plumbing” or “Quality Roofing,” which is still descriptive
- Searching only your own class, when a registered mark for related goods or services in another class can block you
- Submitting a specimen that shows the name with no connection to the goods or services, such as a bare logo image
- Claiming use in commerce before you have made sales or provided services across state lines, when an intent-to-use filing fits the facts
If the search turns up a close mark, or the examiner issues a substantive refusal, a trademark attorney can tell you whether the name is worth fighting for. You can find a trademark attorney in the directory. If the search is clean and your name is distinctive, you can file in Trademark Center once your identity verification is complete.