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Flat Fee vs Hourly Trademark Attorney: What Each Costs Over the Whole Application

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Over a whole trademark application, a flat fee costs what you were quoted unless something outside its scope comes up, and an hourly fee costs the rate times however many hours the matter ends up taking. At Citrus Legal, one mark is $2,600 flat from search through procedural Office Actions, plus the USPTO's $350 per class, while an hourly total isn't known until the work is done.

Neither model is a scam. They put the risk in different places. Here's where.

The whole application, stage by stage

Whoever you hire, the work follows the same path:

  1. Search and opinion. Federal records, state records and real-world use of the name, then a written view of the risk.
  2. The application. Owner, goods and services, classes, filing basis and specimen. Several of those can't be fixed after filing.
  3. Examination. An examining attorney reviews it months later and either approves it or issues an Office Action.
  4. Office Actions. Procedural ones ask for clarifications, disclaimers or amendments. Substantive ones are refusals, like likelihood of confusion or descriptiveness, and need a written legal argument.
  5. Publication and registration. The mark is published for opposition, then registers.
  6. Intent-to-use filings. If you filed before you started selling, you also file a statement of use, and you may need extensions.

The government fees are the same under either model. The base application is $350 per class. A statement of use is $150 per class, and each six-month extension request is $125 per class. Those go to the USPTO, not the lawyer.

The difference is how the legal work in steps 1 through 6 gets billed.

What hourly looks like

With hourly billing, you pay for time. Search review, drafting, emails, calls and Office Action responses all go on the clock at the lawyer's rate.

For a sense of rates, Clio's 2025 data, built from aggregated and anonymized figures across its users, puts the average Florida lawyer at $353 an hour. For intellectual property lawyers in Florida, it's $447 an hour, the highest of any practice area it lists for the state. Those are averages, not anyone's quote.

The math is simple, and that's the point. At $447 an hour, five hours is $2,235 and ten hours is $4,470. I'm not going to tell you how many hours another firm spends on an application, because I don't know, and it varies with the name. That uncertainty is the whole trade.

Hourly makes the most sense when nobody can know the scope in advance. A contested opposition, a lawsuit, a negotiation with another brand owner. For those, a flat fee would either be padded or wrong.

What flat looks like

With a flat fee, the price is set before the work starts, and you know what it covers.

Here's mine, line by line:

  • One mark: $2,600, or three payments of $950. That's the search, a written opinion, the federal application and every procedural Office Action.
  • More marks: two for $4,950, three for $7,300, four for $9,600, five for $11,900.
  • Just a search: $650. Seed is the search and written opinion with no filing. It credits in full toward filing if you move forward within 14 days.
  • Office Action responses on their own: from $425 for a procedural response and from $1,600 for a substantive one, quoted before any work starts.
  • USPTO fees: separate, $350 per class, paid to the government.

I'm the only attorney, and nothing is outsourced. So far, every application Citrus Legal has filed has been approved, with zero refusals. Under the Citrus Guarantee, if a mark I rated low risk is refused, I file a new application at no attorney fee. If the first search on a name comes back high risk, you get one free replacement search.

Where each one can surprise you

Hourly surprises are about size. The bill grows with every question you ask. Some clients stop asking questions to save money, which is exactly when mistakes happen. And an Office Action response can cost more than the original filing.

Flat surprises are about scope. A flat fee is only as good as its edges. Find out what's excluded before you sign. Common edges are substantive Office Actions, extra classes, the statement of use on an intent-to-use filing, and anything at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. A low flat fee with thin scope can cost more in the end than a higher one that covers the likely problems.

So compare the total you're likely to pay, not the first number on the page.

Questions to ask any lawyer, including me

  1. Is this flat or hourly, and what exactly is included?
  2. Is the USPTO fee included or added on top?
  3. Is there a search, with a written opinion, before filing?
  4. How many classes does the price cover?
  5. What happens to the price if there's an Office Action, procedural or substantive?
  6. If I file intent-to-use, is the statement of use included?
  7. Who actually does the work: the lawyer, a paralegal, or a filing service?

Get the answers in writing before you pay. Under the ABA's Model Rule 1.5, the scope and basis of a fee should be communicated to the client, preferably in writing, before or soon after the work starts.

Which one fits you

If your name is ordinary and your field isn't crowded, a flat fee tells you the full legal cost up front, and the risk of overruns is mine, not yours. If you're already in a dispute, hourly is often the honest way to price it. I compared other ways to file, including doing it yourself, in the article on what a trademark attorney costs, and every Citrus price is in the 2026 flat fee breakdown.

To start with a flat fee, see the packages on the start page, or see the Office Action response page if the USPTO has already written back.

Questions about your name? Email us at hello@citrus.legal, or book a paid 30-minute consultation (opens in a new tab) for advice on your specific situation.

Sources

This article is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

When you are ready to own it

One mark. One flat fee. One attorney.

The search, the written opinion, the federal application and procedural Office Actions, for $2,600 or three payments of $950. Nothing is filed until you approve the search. If I call your mark low risk and the USPTO refuses it, I file again at no attorney fee.

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