Trademark Statement of Use: The Fee, the Deadline and the Five Extensions

If you filed on an intent-to-use basis, the Notice of Allowance feels like the finish line. It isn't. It is the USPTO saying the mark can register once you prove you're actually using it, and it starts a six-month clock to send that proof. The proof is the Statement of Use.

Missing it is one of the most common ways a good application dies. In our analysis of every U.S. application filed in the first half of 2024, 31.9% of the abandonments were intent-to-use applications that never got their Statement of Use filed. These weren't refusals. Nobody rejected the mark; the deadline simply passed.

What the Statement of Use Actually Contains

The rule is 37 C.F.R. § 2.88, and the list is short. You file it online with the USPTO, signed in to a USPTO.gov account that has passed the USPTO's identity verification.

• A verified statement that you believe you own the mark and that it is in use in commerce.
• Two dates: the date you first used the mark anywhere, and the date you first used it in commerce. If a class lists several goods, one date pair per class is enough.
• The goods or services you're actually using it on. They have to match the Notice of Allowance, so you can narrow the list but not add to it or reword it into something broader.
• One specimen per class: a real example of the mark in use, such as a product label, packaging, a webpage with a way to buy, or advertising for a service. Our specimen guide covers what examiners accept.
• The fee: $150 per class.

The USPTO checks three minimums before it reviews anything else: the fee for at least one class, one specimen, and the signed statement that the mark is in use. Miss one of those by the deadline and the application is abandoned, even if everything else is perfect.

The Mistake You Can't Undo

Under § 2.88(b)(1)(iv), any goods or services in the Notice of Allowance that you leave out of the Statement of Use are presumed deleted, and they "may not be reinserted." People hit this when they file in a hurry and copy only the products they launched first.

Only list what you are genuinely using. If you're using the mark on some items but not others, the rule gives you a cleaner option: file the Statement of Use with a request to divide. The used goods move into a new application that can register now, and the rest stay behind on the extension clock. The divide request costs $100 for each new application it creates.

Once filed, a Statement of Use can't be withdrawn, so you can't go back to "awaiting Statement of Use" if the examiner finds a problem (§ 2.88(f)). That's why the backup extension described below exists.

The Deadline, and How the Extensions Work

The Statement of Use is due six months from the date the Notice of Allowance issued (§ 2.88(a); 15 U.S.C. § 1051(d)). If you aren't using the mark yet, you file an extension request before the current six months run out. Each one buys six more months.

"Good cause" sounds harder than it is. Under § 2.89(d) it means describing your ongoing efforts to use the mark: product development, market research, manufacturing, promotion, finding distributors, or waiting on a government approval. If you've done none of those, you need a satisfactory explanation of why. A cosmetics brand waiting on a supplier, or a beverage company waiting on a label approval, has an easy story to tell. "We haven't got round to it" doesn't count.

Two practical warnings from the rules. First, the extension request also has to list the goods or services, and anything you drop there is deleted just as it would be in the Statement of Use (§ 2.89(f)). Second, the USPTO may not tell you whether an extension was granted before the next deadline arrives, and its silence doesn't excuse you (§ 2.89(g)). Track the dates yourself; our deadline calculator works them out from the Notice of Allowance date.

The "insurance" extension

Section 2.89(e) allows one more extension request to be filed together with, or just after, the Statement of Use, as long as time remains in the current six-month period and the total stays within 36 months. If the examiner later finds the Statement of Use fatally defective (usually a bad specimen), you still have time to file a new one instead of losing the application. For the second or later extension, the good-cause requirement is met simply by saying you believe the Statement of Use is valid but want time to fix it if it isn't. It costs $125 per class. If your specimen is borderline, it's worth paying.

What It Costs, Worked Through

All amounts are USPTO fees for electronic filing from the current fee schedule. Attorney fees are extra.

• One class, Statement of Use filed on time: $150.
• One class, two extensions, then the Statement of Use: 2 × $125 + $150 = $400.
• Three classes, all five extensions used: 3 × (5 × $125 + $150) = $2,325.
• One class, the Statement of Use plus an insurance extension: $150 + $125 = $275.

If you pay for fewer classes than the application has and don't say which to drop, the USPTO gives you time to pay the rest. After that it applies your money to the lowest-numbered classes first and deletes the others (§ 2.88(b)(3)).

What Our Data Shows About the Waiting Period

Our snapshot of 97,045 USPTO application records, taken from the USPTO's bulk data files and current to early June 2026, includes 3,161 applications that had a Notice of Allowance and were still waiting to file their Statement of Use:

So about four in five applications at this stage had already bought more time, and roughly one in five were on their fourth or fifth extension, which means they're close to the 36-month wall. A further 579 records were in the middle of Statement of Use examination, and 1,094 had passed it and were waiting for the registration to print (code 819).

A word on what this data is. It's one snapshot of the USPTO files we hold, not a census of the register. It shows how status codes were spread on one day, not how long any application took. The counts and percentages are our own calculations, not USPTO statistics.

If You Missed the Deadline

An application abandoned for a missing Statement of Use can sometimes be revived. Under § 2.66 you have two months from the notice of abandonment to file a petition. It needs a statement from someone with first-hand knowledge that the delay was unintentional, and the petition fee of $250. You must also include either the Statement of Use or another extension request, together with the fees for every extension you should have filed in the meantime. If you never received the Notice of Allowance, the petition can instead ask the USPTO to cancel it and issue a new one.

Revival restores the application and its filing date, which is the whole point of an intent-to-use filing. Starting over means a new filing date, and anyone who began using a similar mark in the gap may now be ahead of you.

One Rule That Catches Buyers

Until the Statement of Use (or an earlier amendment to allege use) is filed, an intent-to-use application can't be assigned, except to someone taking over the applicant's business, or the part of it the mark relates to (15 U.S.C. § 1060(a)(1)). If you're selling a brand that is still waiting on its Statement of Use, structure the sale around the business or file the Statement of Use first. Our assignment guide covers the paperwork.