USPTO Trademark Pendency: Current Wait Times and What to Expect in 2026

As of October 1, 2026, the USPTO reports an average of 4.3 months from filing to an examining attorney's first action, and 10.4 months from filing to registration, allowance or abandonment. Three years earlier, in fiscal year 2023, those figures were 8.5 and 14.6 months. Scams have not gone away: the USPTO received nearly 20,000 scam-victim emails in fiscal 2026 (how to spot fake notices).

Here is what the current numbers look like, what they measure, how we got here, and what the USPTO has changed in 2026.

Current Processing Times (October 2026)

The USPTO measures trademark processing speed with two main numbers:

First action pendency is the time from filing to the first substantive action by an examining attorney: either an office action identifying issues or an approval for publication. Fiscal year 2025 closed at 5.6 months against a 6.7-month goal. As of October 1, 2026, the USPTO's processing-times page reports a 4.3-month average against a 5.0-month target.

Total pendency (the USPTO also calls it disposal pendency) is the time from filing to registration, a notice of allowance, or abandonment. Fiscal year 2025 closed at 11.7 months against a 13-month goal. As of October 1, 2026, the USPTO reports 10.4 months against an 11-month target. Two things about this measure matter when you plan around it: it leaves out applications that were suspended or opposed, and for intent-to-use applications it stops at the notice of allowance, before the Statement of Use stage. The October 1 figure is higher than the 9.8 months the USPTO reported for the year through June; it has not said whether the October figure covers the full fiscal year.

In his September 29, 2026 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee's intellectual property subcommittee, USPTO Director John Squires put the fiscal 2026 figures this way: "average first-action pendency has fallen to approximately 4.2 months from a high of 8.5 months in 2023," and "average disposal pendency has fallen to approximately 9.8 months from 14.7 months." He also noted that "FY 2026 filings are up approximately 11% over the comparable prior-year period."

As of October 9, 2026, the USPTO had not announced its official fiscal 2026 year-end results; the October 1 figures above were the latest it had posted. Last year, the processing-times page showed the year-end figures by October 9, 2025, and the USPTO announced them in a bulletin on December 2, 2025.

Pendency Milestones: Past, Present, and Future

Sources: USPTO Trademarks dashboard data; USPTO bulletin of December 2, 2025; USPTO FY2027 budget submission (April 2026), which sets the FY2027 and FY2028 targets.

The USPTO is already below its fiscal 2027 first-action target and close to its fiscal 2027 total-pendency target. Its stated long-term goal, in the FY2027 budget submission, is "to reduce first-action trademark pendency to 4 months and disposal pendency to 9 months by FY 2028." In a May 5, 2026 bulletin the agency said it is "on track" to meet it.

Our Quarter-by-Quarter First-Action Data (March 2026)

The USPTO reports pendency by fiscal year. That is useful for long-term trends, but it hides how quickly conditions changed and when the acceleration began.

An analysis by TMZap Incorporated, the company behind GleanMark, prepared for Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP in March 2026, gives a quarter-by-quarter view. It looked at more than 130,000 eligible trademark filings per quarter and tracked how many received a first substantive action within 180 days of filing.

The Q4 2024 Inflection Point

The share of filings that reached a first action within 180 days jumped in the fourth quarter of 2024:

Source: TMZap Incorporated analysis, prepared for Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP, March 2026. Includes only filings with a full 180 days of observable history as of March 10, 2026.

The 180-day first-action rate jumped from 8% to nearly 34% in a single quarter, and by Q1 2025 more than half of all filings were receiving a first action within 180 days. Behind that jump is a steady decline: the median time to first action fell from 274 days in early 2023 to 144 days by Q3 2025, nearly half, and the 180-day rate took off once the median dropped below 180 days.

Do Protested Applications Wait Longer?

The same analysis compared first-action timing for all applications with applications that received a Letter of Protest. Protested applications track closely with the general population:

The two tables' medians differ by a day for some quarters (for example 274 and 273 for 2023-Q1); both are reproduced as published in March 2026.

Protested applications took 0 to 4 days longer to reach a first action, which suggests Letters of Protest are not meaningfully delaying examination. For how Letter of Protest outcomes have shifted alongside faster processing, see our Letter of Protest trend analysis.

Historical Context: How We Got Here

From fiscal 2008 through fiscal 2020, first action pendency stayed between about 2.4 and 3.4 months. Then the filing surge hit.

Filings peaked at 943,928 classes in fiscal 2021, the highest in USPTO history. The examining corps, staffed for historical volumes, could not keep pace. Unexamined inventory reached 542,639 classes on June 30, 2022, the highest quarter-end figure in the USPTO's dashboard data, and the agency has been working it down since.

Why Processing Times Vary

The USPTO's pendency numbers are averages. Individual applications move faster or slower depending on a few factors.

Application Complexity

An application that raises no issues can be approved for publication on first examination, the fastest path. One that triggers an office action, for likelihood of confusion, a merely descriptive mark, or a specimen problem, adds months as the applicant responds and the examiner reviews.

Office Actions

For most applications, you have three months to respond to an office action, plus one optional three-month extension for a $125 fee. Applications filed through the Madrid Protocol under Section 66(a) get six months with no extension. The examiner then reviews the response and issues a follow-up action or an approval. A final refusal can lead to a request for reconsideration or an appeal, which extends the timeline further.

Publication and Oppositions

An approved mark is published in the Official Gazette, which opens a 30-day window for anyone to oppose it. A potential opposer can request extensions, but never beyond 180 days from publication. If someone does file an opposition, the case moves to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). Contested cases there take years, not months: TTAB trial cases decided on the merits averaged 151 weeks (about 2.9 years) in fiscal 2026 through June, according to the TTAB's performance page. Few reach a decision on the merits: in fiscal 2026 through June, the Board decided 82 trial cases on the merits, while 6,327 oppositions and 2,221 cancellations were filed.

Intent-to-Use Applications

An application filed on an intent-to-use basis (Section 1(b)) needs a Statement of Use before it can register. After the notice of allowance, the applicant has six months to file it and can request up to five six-month extensions, $125 per class each, for up to three years in total. Extensions after the first require a showing of good cause. The USPTO's initial processing of a filed Statement of Use averaged 53 days as of October 1, 2026, against a 15-day target, down from 157 days in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Examination follows, and the USPTO estimates registration about 4 months after the Statement of Use is filed. Once registered, maintenance deadlines follow; see our guide to Section 8 and 9 Trademark Maintenance and Renewal Deadlines.

What the USPTO Changed in 2026

• Class ACT (March 19, 2026). An AI tool now assigns international classes, design search codes and pseudo marks during pre-examination, so logo and design applications become searchable almost immediately instead of months later. By late September, the Director testified, it "has already analyzed more than 350,000 trademark applications."
• AI image search (April 2, 2026). A beta feature in the USPTO's trademark search system lets you upload an image to look for similar marks. It requires a USPTO.gov login.
• AI mark descriptions (April 2026). Trademark Center can now suggest a properly formatted mark description and color claim for a logo, which the USPTO says can "take the guesswork out of what to include and reduce processing delays."
• Statement of Use backlog. In May the USPTO said it was implementing an automated tool to move Statements of Use to examining attorneys more quickly. Initial processing time fell from 157 days early in the fiscal year to 53 days by October 1.
• Trademark Center replaces TEAS. Extension requests for a Statement of Use are now filed in Trademark Center, and the USPTO plans to finish moving off TEAS in spring 2027. Our Trademark Center guide walks through the new platform.
• Madrid e-Filing (October 1, 2026). International applications based on a U.S. application or registration are now filed through WIPO's Madrid e-Filing system.
• Nice Classification 2027 (effective January 1, 2027). Minor wording changes to two class headings (Classes 6 and 9); no goods or services move between classes.
• No fee changes in 2026 (as of October 9). The fees in effect since January 18, 2025 still apply: $350 per class for a base application, a $100 surcharge per class for missing information, and $200 per class for a free-form identification.
• Fraud enforcement. The Director testified that the Trademarks organization "has removed more than 9,400 applications and registrations for nonuse and fraud" (the testimony does not say over what period).

The USPTO's Capacity Plan

The improvement did not happen by accident. In fiscal 2025 the USPTO completed 1,855,828 balanced disposals, its main production measure, which credits an examining attorney when they take a first action on a case and again when they complete it.

On staffing, the agency's FY2026 budget submission planned "to hire 75 trademark examiners, which is partially offset by an estimated 48 attritions in FY 2026," so net growth is modest. The FY2027 submission plans 70 more examining attorneys against an estimated 50 departures.

Unexamined inventory fell 20.4% in fiscal 2025, from 435,247 to 346,378 classes, and kept falling to 303,777 classes by June 30, 2026, 44% below its June 2022 peak. That happened while filings rose: fiscal 2025 brought 824,192 classes, up 7.4%, and fiscal 2026 brought 672,691 classes through June 30, up about 11%.

For fiscal 2026 the USPTO said it would introduce an inventory management index, defined as first actions produced minus new applications received. A positive number means the inventory is shrinking. As of October 2026 the agency had not published an index value; the inventory itself fell 42,601 classes in the first three quarters of fiscal 2026.

The 2025 fee structure is also changing what arrives at the door. In fiscal 2026 through June, base applications, filed with no surcharges, made up 83.2% of the classes filed directly with the USPTO.

What the Numbers Mean for You

A Typical Timeline (2026)

The USPTO's own average that includes suspended and opposed applications was 11.3 months for fiscal 2026 through June. Individual opposed cases can take years.

How to Speed Up Your Application

You cannot control the USPTO's queue, but you can control the quality of your application.

Use the ID Manual for Goods and Services

Choosing your identification of goods and services from the USPTO's ID Manual keeps your application a base application and avoids the $200-per-class surcharge for free-form text. ID Manual entries are pre-approved, which also lowers the chance of an office action for an unacceptable identification. If the ID Manual does not contain the description you need, you can propose a new entry at TMIDSuggest@uspto.gov.

Submit Complete Applications

Missing required information, such as a proper domicile address, a translation or a verified statement, triggers a $100-per-class surcharge and can lead to an office action. Gather everything before you start the filing.

Provide Clean Specimens

A specimen must show the mark as consumers actually encounter it in commerce. Digitally altered images, mockups and AI-generated product images are likely to be refused. Submit genuine photographs of the mark on products, packaging, or the web page where the goods or services are sold.

Respond Promptly to Office Actions

You have three months to respond to an office action, or six with the paid extension (Madrid §66(a) applications get six months with no extension), but there is no benefit to waiting. A prompt, complete response keeps the application moving.

Track Your Application

The USPTO's Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR) system shows the current status of any application or registration, every office action, and the filed documents.

To watch beyond your own filings, services like GleanMark track the USPTO register and alert you to new filings that could conflict with your mark, status changes on applications you follow, and updates to registrations in your portfolio. That matters during the months an application is pending, when competing applications for similar marks can be filed.

Looking Ahead: FY2027 and Beyond

Every fiscal 2026 figure the USPTO has posted is below its targets of five months to first action and eleven months total. The next milestones are 4.5 and 10 months in fiscal 2027, then 4 and 9 months in fiscal 2028. Filings are still rising: the agency projects 905,000 classes in fiscal 2027. For applicants filing today, wait times are the shortest since early 2021.

Conclusion

Fiscal 2025 delivered first-action pendency of 5.6 months, total pendency of 11.7 months, and a 20.4% cut in unexamined inventory, even as filings rose 7.4%. Fiscal 2026 pushed those to about 4.2 and 9.8 months through June, even as filings rose about 11%. Our quarter-by-quarter analysis shows when the change began: median time to first action fell from 274 days to 144 days between early 2023 and mid-2025, with a fourfold jump in the 180-day first-action rate in Q4 2024.

For brand owners planning to file, conditions are better than they have been in years. File a complete, well-prepared application, respond promptly to any office action, and monitor the register for filings that could affect your rights.

GleanMark monitors USPTO trademark filings, status changes and potential conflicts across 14 million records. Start tracking your trademark today.

Updated October 9, 2026 with the USPTO's latest published figures (data as of October 1, 2026). Sources: USPTO trademark processing-times page (https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/application-timeline); USPTO Trademarks dashboard and datasheet (https://www.uspto.gov/dashboard/trademarks/); USPTO bulletins of December 2, 2025, March 19, 2026 (Class ACT), April 2, 2026 (AI image search), April 23, 2026, April 27, 2026 (Trademark Center features) and May 5, 2026; USPTO FY2025 Agency Financial Report; USPTO FY2026 and FY2027 budget submissions; testimony of USPTO Director John Squires to the Senate Judiciary Committee's intellectual property subcommittee, September 29, 2026; TTAB incoming filings and performance page; USPTO Trademark Center updates page; 91 FR 54963 (Nice Classification, August 26, 2026); 37 C.F.R. §§ 2.6, 2.62, 2.88, 2.89 and 2.102.