To trademark a clothing line, you file an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office under Class 25 (the class covering apparel), pay a $350 filing fee per class, and wait roughly 12 to 18 months for examination, publication, and registration. The mark you register can be a brand name, logo, or slogan, but it has to function as a source identifier on the garment, not just as decoration. Get that distinction wrong and the application gets refused, which is the single most common reason clothing filings fail.
What Actually Counts as a Trademark on Clothing
A trademark tells a shopper who made the shirt. That sounds obvious, but the USPTO applies it strictly to apparel. A large graphic printed across the front of a t-shirt is almost always treated as ornamental, not as a trademark, because consumers read a bold chest design as decoration rather than as a signal of source.1United States Patent and Trademark Office. Ornamental Refusal and How to Overcome This Refusal
A small logo on a breast pocket, a name on a sewn-in neck label, or branding on a hangtag does function as a trademark, because shoppers associate those placements with the maker of the garment. If your plan is to put your brand name in giant letters across the front of every shirt, you still need to show the mark working as a source identifier somewhere else on the product, or prove that consumers already recognize the design as your brand. This is why the ornamental refusal derails so many clothing applications.
Picking a Name Strong Enough to Register
Trademark law grades marks on a spectrum, and where your name sits on it determines both how easy it is to register and how well you can defend it later.
- Fanciful marks are invented words with no meaning outside your brand, like Exxon or Rolex. Easiest to register, hardest to challenge.
- Arbitrary marks are real words used in an unrelated context. Apple for computers is the classic example; Glacier for streetwear would qualify.
- Suggestive marks hint at a product quality without describing it directly. Coppertone suggests tanning without saying so.
- Descriptive marks just describe the product or a feature of it, and cannot be registered unless you can prove that consumers have come to associate the words specifically with your brand after years of use.2United States Patent and Trademark Office. Strong Trademarks
If you’re naming a new label, something like “Soft Cotton Tees” is essentially unregistrable. Spend the creative effort upfront on a fanciful or arbitrary name. Building a brand around a distinctive word is dramatically easier than trying to prove acquired distinctiveness for a descriptive one.
Choosing the Right Class
The USPTO organizes all goods and services into 45 international classes. Clothing sits in Class 25, which covers shirts, pants, footwear, headwear, and other garments.3United States Patent and Trademark Office. Goods and Services Most clothing startups file only in Class 25, and that covers the core product line.
When the brand expands, you add classes. Jewelry falls under Class 14, leather goods like handbags under Class 18, and retail services (including running an online store) under Class 35.3United States Patent and Trademark Office. Goods and Services Each additional class costs another filing fee, so a brand doing clothing, jewelry, and e-commerce would pay three. Start with Class 25 and add classes as you actually move into those categories.
Searching Before You File
Filing fees are not refundable if the application is rejected, so search the USPTO database before you pay. The free search tool lives at the USPTO’s Trademark Center.
The examining attorney will apply a “likelihood of confusion” standard, meaning whether your mark is close enough to an existing registration that consumers might think the products share a source.4United States Patent and Trademark Office. Possible Grounds for Refusal of a Mark The analysis weighs similarity in sound, appearance, and meaning, plus how closely related the goods are.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1052 – Trademarks Registrable on Principal Register
Search beyond identical spellings. “Kloz” would likely conflict with “Clothes” on apparel because they sound the same spoken aloud. Look for phonetic equivalents, similar-sounding words, and translations that mean the same thing in another language.
Filing the Application
Applications go through the USPTO’s online Trademark Electronic Application System. You’ll need the legal name and address of the owner (you personally or a business entity), a clear representation of the mark, and a description of the goods.
Two format choices come up. A standard character mark protects the words themselves in any font, color, or style. A special form mark protects a specific logo design or stylized lettering. When both the name and the logo matter, many clothing brands file separate applications for each.
Filing Basis
If you’re already selling clothing under the mark, file under Section 1(a), “use in commerce,” and submit a specimen proving the mark is in use. If you have a genuine intention to launch but haven’t started selling yet, file under Section 1(b), “intent to use,” and submit specimens later.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1051 – Application for Registration
Filing Fees
The base fee is $350 per class.7United States Patent and Trademark Office. How Much Does It Cost? A clothing-only brand pays $350 total. Adding printing services in a second class puts you at $700. None of it is refundable if the application is rejected. Hiring a trademark attorney to handle the search and filing typically adds $1,500 to $3,000 on top of the government fees.
Specimens for Clothing
Applications filed on current use require a specimen showing the mark as consumers actually see it. For clothing, the workable specimens are photographs of sewn-in labels, neck tags, or hangtags displaying the mark.8United States Patent and Trademark Office. Specimens
A screenshot of an online product page can also work, but it has to include the mark shown near the product, a price, a way to purchase (like an “add to cart” button), the URL, and the date the page was captured. Miss any of those and the specimen gets rejected.8United States Patent and Trademark Office. Specimens
What won’t work: mockups, digitally altered images, printer’s proofs, or draft websites showing how you plan to display the mark. The specimen has to reflect actual current use, which trips up new brands sitting on prototypes that haven’t shipped yet.
What Happens After You File
The USPTO assigns a serial number for tracking, then an examining attorney reviews the application, searches for conflicting marks, and checks the legal requirements. That initial review takes several months.
Office Actions
If the examining attorney finds a problem, they issue an office action explaining the issue and what you need to do. Common issues include likelihood of confusion with an existing mark, a goods description that needs rewording, or an unacceptable specimen. You have three months from the issue date to respond, with an optional three-month extension available for a fee. Miss the deadline and the application is abandoned, the fees are gone, and the mark won’t register.9United States Patent and Trademark Office. Responding to Office Actions
Office actions aren’t necessarily fatal. Many involve fixable issues like clarifying your goods description or submitting a better specimen. A likelihood-of-confusion refusal can often be argued down with evidence showing the marks are distinguishable, and this is where a trademark attorney earns their fee.
Publication and Opposition
If the examining attorney approves the mark, it gets published in the Trademark Official Gazette. That opens a 30-day window for anyone who believes the registration would damage their existing rights to file a formal opposition.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1063 – Opposition to Registration Most applications pass through this period without challenge.
What happens next depends on your filing basis. Section 1(a) applications proceed directly to registration and the USPTO issues a Certificate of Registration. Section 1(b) applications receive a Notice of Allowance instead, which starts the clock on proving actual use.
Completing an Intent-to-Use Application
A Notice of Allowance is not a registration. It means the USPTO has approved the mark but needs proof you’ve started selling under it. You have six months from the Notice of Allowance to file a Statement of Use with specimens and a $150 fee per class.11United States Patent and Trademark Office. USPTO Fee Schedule
One automatic six-month extension is available on written request. Beyond that, the USPTO may grant further extensions for good cause, but the total time from Notice of Allowance to Statement of Use cannot exceed three years.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 U.S. Code 1051 – Application for Registration Each extension request requires a fee and a sworn statement that you still genuinely intend to use the mark. Let the deadline lapse without filing and the application dies.
Using ™ vs. ®
You can use the ™ symbol next to your brand name or logo immediately, even before filing. It signals that you claim the name as your trademark and puts competitors on notice. No registration is required.
The ® symbol is different. Use it only after the USPTO issues your Certificate of Registration, and only in connection with the specific goods covered by the registration. Using ® before registration or on products outside the registration is legally improper and can cause problems in later enforcement actions.
Keeping the Registration Active
A federal registration doesn’t renew itself, and the USPTO won’t send a rescue reminder at the last minute. Miss a maintenance deadline and the registration is cancelled.
- Between years 5 and 6, file a Section 8 Declaration of Use with a current specimen showing the mark still in use on clothing. Failure to file results in cancellation.
- Between years 9 and 10, file both a Section 8 Declaration and a Section 9 Renewal Application. This combined filing keeps the registration alive for another 10 years.
- Every 10 years after that, file another combined Section 8 and Section 9.
Each filing window has a six-month grace period after the deadline, but using it costs an extra $100 per class on top of the regular filing fee.12United States Patent and Trademark Office. Registration Maintenance/Renewal/Correction Forms The Section 8 between years 5 and 6 is the one that catches people off guard. Mark those dates the day your registration issues.
Enforcing the Mark
Registration alone doesn’t stop infringers. You have an affirmative responsibility to monitor the market and act when someone uses a mark confusingly similar to yours. Consistently ignoring infringement weakens the mark and can eventually cost you the registration, because the mark loses its ability to identify your brand as the source of the goods.13United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark Scope of Protection
Enforcement usually starts with a cease-and-desist letter formally notifying the other party that you own the mark and demanding they stop. Many disputes end there. If not, a federal registration gives you the right to sue in federal court for damages, an injunction, and in some cases the infringer’s profits.
For clothing brands, the recurring enforcement problems are knockoff streetwear, unauthorized logo use on marketplace listings, and new brands launching with confusingly similar names in the same niche. Setting up alerts through the USPTO’s trademark database and checking major online marketplaces periodically catches problems early, when they’re cheapest to resolve.