Can you protect a brand name in the UK for less than the price of a decent weekend away, or will the bill quietly grow teeth once you add more products and services?
From 1 April 2026, the basic online fee for a UK trademark application is £205 for one class. That is the clean, uncomplicated answer. The less tidy answer depends on what your business does, how many categories it needs, whether you apply online or on paper, and whether you want someone else to navigate the process without making your coffee go cold.
The basic online fee is £205
An online application covering one class costs £205 from 1 April 2026. A class is a category of goods or services covered by the trademark. A clothing brand, a software company and a café may all need different classes, even if they use the same brand name.
Each additional class costs £60. That means an application covering three classes comes to £325:
£205 for the first class, plus £60 for the second and £60 for the third.
The arithmetic is not difficult. Choosing the right classes can be. A business might sell physical products, offer consultancy services and run an online platform under one name. Those activities do not automatically fall into one convenient box labelled “everything my company does”. Trademark protection is organised by categories, and the categories need to match the business’s actual or planned activities.
That is why the cheapest application is not always the most sensible one. Saving £60 today may be less impressive if the registration leaves out an important part of the business. A trademark is rather like buying a lock: the price matters, but so does the door it is fitted to.
Three classes cost £325 online
For a straightforward online application, the figures look like this in practice. One class costs £205. Two classes cost £265. Three classes cost £325. Every class after the first adds another £60.
The three-class figure is particularly useful for budgeting because many small businesses need more than one category. A brand selling products and providing related services may need a broader application than a business offering only one narrowly defined service.
There is no automatic financial advantage to adding a long list of classes just because they sound vaguely relevant. Extra classes increase the fee, and they should have a genuine connection to what the business does or intends to do. A sprawling application can turn a modest filing into an expensive attempt to claim the entire alphabet.
The application fee covers the official filing process. It does not include a professional search of existing trademarks, advice on selecting classes, responses to objections or representation during disputes. Those are separate services, usually charged by a solicitor, trademark attorney or another specialist.
Paper applications cost more
Paperwork has not vanished entirely, although it has lost the pricing contest.
A paper application for one class costs £250 from 1 April 2026. For three classes, the fee is £370. The same £60 charge applies to each additional class after the first, so the difference comes from the higher starting fee for paper applications.
For one class, applying on paper costs £45 more than applying online. For three classes, the difference is also £45: £370 instead of £325. That may not sound dramatic, but it is money spent on a slower, less convenient route without expanding the protection itself.
There may still be practical reasons why someone chooses paper, particularly if their circumstances make an online application difficult. For most applicants, though, the online route is the obvious budgeting choice. The paper form does not come with a ceremonial fountain pen or a small velvet cushion for the extra £45.
Right Start splits the payment
The Right Start option is designed for applicants who want to begin the process with a smaller initial payment. It does not reduce the total fee if the application proceeds to the second stage; it divides the payment into two parts.
The first stage costs £125 for the first class, plus £30 for each additional class. The second stage costs the same amounts.
For one class, that means £125 at the first stage and another £125 at the second stage, for a total of £250. For three classes, the first payment is £185: £125 for the first class and £30 for each of the two additional classes. The second payment is another £185, bringing the total to £370.
That makes Right Start more expensive overall than a standard online application. A one-class online filing costs £205, while a one-class Right Start application totals £250. For three classes, the standard online total is £325, compared with £370 through Right Start.
Its purpose is cash-flow management, not a discount. The arrangement gives the applicant a chance to decide whether to continue after the initial stage, but the published fee structure should be understood before choosing it. “Smaller first payment” and “cheaper application” are not the same sentence, despite their occasional habit of standing next to each other in people’s minds.
The application fee is only the beginning of the budget
The official filing fee is the part of the cost that is easiest to see. Other expenses appear if the application needs more work.
A professional trademark search may be recommended before filing, particularly if the proposed name is close to existing marks. The price of that work varies according to the provider and the scope of the search. Some searches are narrow and focused; others examine a wider range of similar names, spellings and categories.
Legal advice is another separate cost. A solicitor or trademark attorney may help define the goods and services, prepare the application, assess risks or handle correspondence. Representation can be particularly useful if the application receives an objection or if another trademark owner challenges it. None of those professional costs is included in the official UK application fee.
The same applies to disputes. If another business objects to the application, or if the applicant needs to object to someone else’s mark, the official filing fee is only one part of the financial picture. Time spent gathering evidence, drafting arguments and responding to correspondence can become more expensive than the original application itself.
Businesses should also remember that a trademark registration is not a one-off forever payment. A UK registration must be renewed after 10 years. The online renewal fee is £245 for one class, plus £60 for each additional class. A three-class renewal therefore costs £365: £245 for the first class and £60 for each of the other two.
That renewal figure is higher than the 2026 online application fee for one class, so it deserves a place in the long-term budget rather than being treated as a distant administrative surprise. Ten years is a long time in business, but it has an irritating habit of arriving anyway.
For a company filing a single-class application online, the starting figure is £205. For three classes, it is £325. Paper applications begin at £250, while Right Start begins at £125 but reaches £250 for one class if the second stage is paid. Add another £60 for every class beyond the first, and keep professional advice, searches and disputes outside the official fee calculation.