Three kinds of trademark monitoring
- New filings — a trademark watch. Someone applies for a mark like yours, the office publishes it, and there is a short window to oppose. This is what we do, for the US and the UK.
- Use online — brand protection. Copies and fakes on marketplaces, websites, social media and domain names. Tools for this look for use, not for applications. We don’t do this.
- Your own mark. The status of your application or registration, office letters and deadlines. The offices show it for free: TSDR at the USPTO, the trade mark search at the UK IPO. We don’t do this either.
“Trademark infringement monitoring” usually means the second kind. A new application is not the same as use, but it often comes first: a watch of new filings tells you early, while the mark can still be opposed.
What a good monitoring service tells you
- which offices it reads, and how often — the journals come out every week;
- why each result looks like your mark, in words, not just a score;
- the classes of each result, so you can skip unrelated goods;
- the last day to oppose, counted for you;
- a link to the official record;
- whether it catches sound-alikes, near spellings and longer marks that contain yours.
How we monitor US and UK filings
Every Tuesday the USPTO publishes the Trademark Official Gazette; every Friday the UK IPO publishes the Trade Marks Journal. We read both in full — about 14,000 marks a week — and compare each mark with yours: the same words, sound-alikes, near spellings and your mark inside a longer one, in the classes you sell in. For each match you see the reason, the classes, the owner and the last day to oppose.
Monitoring your trademark yourself
Both journals are free to read. The US Gazette is a PDF — the issue of 20 October 2026 had 29,461 pages; the UK journal lists about 3,600 marks a week. You can read them yourself every week; a monitoring service reads them for you and shows only the marks that look like yours.
The deadlines
| United States | United Kingdom | |
|---|---|---|
| Where new marks appear | USPTO Trademark Official Gazette, every Tuesday | UK IPO Trade Marks Journal, every Friday |
| Time to oppose | 30 days from publication | 2 months from publication |
| More time | Ask before the 30 days end: 30 more days on request (no fee), or 90 days for good cause ($200). Never more than 180 days from publication. | File form TM7a within the 2 months: one more month, no fee |
| To oppose | A notice of opposition to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board: $600 per class, filed online | Form TM7, notice of opposition, with the IPO’s fee |
United States
- Where new marks appear
- USPTO Trademark Official Gazette, every Tuesday
- Time to oppose
- 30 days from publication
- More time
- Ask before the 30 days end: 30 more days on request (no fee), or 90 days for good cause ($200). Never more than 180 days from publication.
- To oppose
- A notice of opposition to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board: $600 per class, filed online
United Kingdom
- Where new marks appear
- UK IPO Trade Marks Journal, every Friday
- Time to oppose
- 2 months from publication
- More time
- File form TM7a within the 2 months: one more month, no fee
- To oppose
- Form TM7, notice of opposition, with the IPO’s fee
If the last US day falls on a weekend or a federal holiday, it moves to the next business day. Sources: 37 CFR §2.102, §2.196 and §2.6; UK IPO guidance on objecting to trade marks. Checked 23 October 2026.