How Much Does UK Trade Mark Registration Cost in 2026?

From 1 April 2026, registering a UK trade mark online with the Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) costs £205 for the first class of goods or services, plus £60 for each additional class. That is the official fee only. If you use a trade mark attorney or advisory service to search, draft and file, expect professional fees of roughly £300–£900+ on top, depending on complexity.

Key takeaways

• The UKIPO online fee from 1 April 2026 is £205 for one class, plus £60 per additional class.
• This is the first UKIPO trade mark fee rise since 1998 — fees increased by around 25% on average.
• Professional help (searches, advice, filing) typically adds £300–£900+, more for oppositions.
• The fee is non-refundable even if your application is refused — which is why getting the application right matters.
• A registered trade mark lasts 10 years and can be renewed indefinitely.

What is a trade mark and why register it?

A trade mark protects the signs that distinguish your business — typically your brand name and logo, but potentially slogans, shapes, sounds and other identifiers. Registering it with the UKIPO gives you the exclusive right to use that mark for the goods and services you register it for, and makes it far easier and cheaper to stop others from copying you.

Without registration you rely on the common-law action of “passing off,” which requires you to prove you have built up goodwill and reputation in the name and that another business is misrepresenting itself as connected to you. That is harder, slower and more expensive to enforce than simply pointing to a registered right. A registered trade mark is, in effect, a property asset: it can be licensed, sold, used as security, and it appears on the public register as a clear deterrent to would-be copycats. For most growing businesses, registration is one of the highest-value, lowest-cost protections available.

UK trade mark fees in 2026

The UKIPO increased its fees on 1 April 2026 — the first trade mark fee increase since 1998. The current online (“standard”) application fees are:

So a single-class application costs £205, a two-class application £265, a three-class application £325, and so on. The increase is meaningful, and worth budgeting for.

“Classes” refer to the 45 categories of goods and services in the international (Nice) classification. You pay per class because each class you register extends the scope — and the cost — of your protection. A clothing brand, for example, might register in Class 25 (clothing) and Class 35 (retail services), because protecting just one would leave a gap.

The hidden importance of getting it right

The UKIPO fee is non-refundable. If your application is rejected — because the mark is too descriptive, conflicts with an earlier mark, or is filed in the wrong classes — you lose the fee and have to start again. Common, costly mistakes include:

• Choosing the wrong classes, leaving gaps in protection or paying for classes you don’t actually need.
• Filing a mark that’s too descriptive (for example, “Fresh Bread” for a bakery), which the UKIPO may refuse because it cannot distinguish your goods from anyone else’s.
• Missing an existing conflicting mark that leads the owner to oppose your application.

This is why a clearance search and a properly drafted specification of goods and services are worth doing before you file. Spending a little on getting the application right is far cheaper than losing the fee, or worse, building a brand on a name you later have to abandon.

What does professional help cost?

Many businesses handle a simple, single-class filing themselves, and for a clearly distinctive name with no obvious conflicts, that can be perfectly sensible. But where there is any complexity — multiple classes, a name that might clash, or international ambitions — using a trade mark attorney or advisory service is sensible. Typical professional fees in 2026:

These are in addition to the UKIPO fees above. The most expensive scenario is a contested opposition, where another party challenges your application — another reason a clearance search at the outset is a wise investment, since it reduces the chance of an opposition arising.

Beyond filing: renewals and enforcement

The cost of a trade mark does not end at registration. A UK trade mark lasts ten years and must then be renewed (for a further fee) to stay in force, indefinitely, in ten-year cycles. Budgeting for renewal is part of treating the mark as a long-term asset. There is also the question of enforcement: a registered trade mark is only valuable if you are prepared to act when someone infringes it. That might mean a cease-and-desist letter, a marketplace takedown request, or, in serious cases, legal action. Many businesses also keep a “watch” on new applications so they can object early to confusingly similar marks. None of this is mandatory, but it is worth understanding that registration is the beginning of protecting a brand, not the end.

What about protecting your brand abroad?

A UK trade mark only protects you in the UK. If you sell — or plan to sell — into other markets, you may need protection there too, and the cost rises accordingly. There are broadly three routes. You can file national applications directly in each country, which gives the most control but means separate fees and procedures in each. You can file a single EU trade mark to cover all EU member states in one application, useful for businesses trading across Europe. Or you can use the Madrid System, an international application administered through the World Intellectual Property Organization, which lets you seek protection in many countries from a single base application — often the most cost-effective route for businesses targeting several markets.

Each route has different fees, timescales and quirks, and the right choice depends on where you actually do business or expect to. The key planning point is to think about international protection early, ideally before you launch in a new market, because in most countries rights go to whoever registers first — not whoever used the name first. A business that delays can find its own brand already registered by someone else in a target market, turning expansion into an expensive dispute. Even if overseas protection is not needed now, it is worth mapping out so the cost can be planned rather than discovered.

London businesses

London is the UK’s most competitive branding environment, with dense clusters of businesses in similar sectors — which raises the chance that a chosen name conflicts with an existing mark. London businesses also more often trade internationally, making early decisions about overseas protection (for example, EU or international applications via the Madrid System) more relevant. A clearance search before launch is especially valuable here, where a clash is statistically more likely, and where the cost of rebranding an established London business — new signage, marketing, packaging and goodwill — can be very high. Getting the brand protected early, in the right classes, is a small cost that avoids a large one later.

How Hayhills can help

Hayhills provides brand protection and intellectual property advisory support through our Brand Protection and Intellectual Property service — helping you assess brand risk, think through classes and clearance, and protect your position commercially. Where formal filing or attorney representation is required, we can facilitate an introduction to an appropriate professional, so your brand strategy and your filings work together.

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