Setting Up Trademark Alerts: Automated Monitoring That Works While You Sleep

GleanMark monitors the USPTO twice daily and alerts you when something changes — a status update on your mark, a new filing by a competitor, a TTAB proceeding, or an approaching deadline. With alert categories spanning portfolio marks and tracked owners, you get comprehensive coverage without manual TSDR checks.

What You Can Do

• Monitor your own trademarks for status changes, prosecution events, and deadlines
• Track competitors and watch for new filings, assignments, and TTAB activity
• Receive deadline reminders at 30 days, 7 days, and 1 day before due dates
• Set up keyword watch searches that fire when new matching filings appear (Professional and Max plans)
• Customize which alert categories you receive

How It Works

1. Add marks to a portfolio — Navigate to Portfolios in the sidebar and create a portfolio. Add trademarks by serial number. Every mark in a portfolio is automatically monitored.
2. Track owners — Go to Owners in the sidebar, open an owner, and click "Start Tracking." GleanMark monitors all their current and future filings.
3. Configure settings — Go to Settings > Alert Settings (/settings/alerts) to control which alert categories are active and how they're delivered.
4. Receive alerts — GleanMark checks the USPTO twice daily (morning and afternoon, US Eastern time) and sends email notifications for any changes detected.

Alert Types

Portfolio Mark Alerts (monitoring your trademarks)

Status & Prosecution

• Status change — Registration status changes (e.g., Published for Opposition, Registered)
• Prosecution events — New office actions, examiner amendments, responses filed
• ITU transition — Intent-to-use application files a Statement of Use or amendment

Milestones

• Publication — Mark published in the Official Gazette for opposition
• Registration — Mark officially registered
• Renewal — Section 8/9 renewal filed
• Cancellation — Mark cancelled
• Abandonment — Application or registration abandoned
• International registration — Madrid Protocol designation accepted

Ownership Changes

• Assignment — Ownership transferred to a new entity
• Correspondent changed — Attorney/correspondent of record changed

Reclassifications

• Goods/services changed — Amendments to the goods and services description
• Classification changed — Nice class modifications
• Design search codes changed — Updates to design code assignments

TTAB Proceedings

• TTAB proceeding initiated — New opposition or cancellation proceeding filed involving your mark
• TTAB status change — Status update on an existing proceeding (suspended, resumed, decided)
• TTAB prosecution entry — New document or filing in a proceeding

Deadlines & Renewals

• 30-day deadline — Upcoming deadline in 30 days
• 7-day deadline — Upcoming deadline in 7 days
• Tomorrow deadline — Deadline is tomorrow

Tracked Owner Alerts (monitoring competitors)

• New application — Owner files a new trademark application
• Assignment — Owner acquires or transfers a mark
• Info change — Owner entity name or address changes
• Citation alerts — When an examiner cites one of the owner's marks as a Section 2(d) bar to another application
• Publication — One of the owner's marks published for opposition
• Registration — Owner's mark registered
• Renewal — Owner's mark renewed
• Cancellation — Owner's mark cancelled
• Abandonment — Owner's application/registration abandoned
• International registration — Owner's Madrid Protocol mark registered
• TTAB proceeding — Owner is named in a new opposition or cancellation proceeding
• TTAB status change — Status update on a proceeding involving the owner

Watch Searches (keyword-based monitoring)

Watch searches let you save a keyword query and get alerted when new filings match. For example, watch for any new trademark containing "SOLAR" in Class 9.

Watch alerts fire on five event types: new filing, publication, registration, abandonment, and cancellation.

Watch searches are available on Professional and Max plans.

Configuring Alert Settings

Navigate to Settings > Alert Settings (/settings/alerts) to customize your alerts. Settings are organized into tabs:

Portfolios

Control alerts for your portfolio trademarks. Alerts are grouped into categories — Prosecution, Milestones, Reclassifications, Deadlines & Renewals, TTAB Proceedings, and Ownership Changes — that you toggle on or off. You can also override these per portfolio.

Owners

Configure tracked owner alerts. Each tracked owner has an Active toggle and an Alerts toggle, plus category checkboxes (New Applications, Assignments, Owner Info, Portfolio Events, TTAB Activity, Citations). New owners inherit your account defaults until you customize them.

Automated Watches

Manage watch coverage that GleanMark sets up for you, with a digest of recent matches.

Custom Watches

Create and edit your own keyword watch searches and control their notification settings.

Slack

Connect a Slack workspace to receive alerts in designated channels.

Client Notifications

For firms, configure client-facing notification emails.

Tips & Best Practices

• Start with all categories on — You can always mute specific categories later. It's better to see too much initially than to miss something important.
• Use tracked owners for competitors — Don't just monitor your own marks. Track your top competitors to catch new filings early.
• Pay attention to citation alerts on tracked owners — If a competitor's mark is cited as a Section 2(d) bar, it signals examiner-level concern about confusion with similar marks.
• Use watch searches to catch new filings that resemble your marks — Save a keyword query so you're alerted when matching applications appear, even if the applicant doesn't know your mark exists.
• Check deadlines regularly — The 30/7/1 day cascade ensures you won't miss a deadline, but review the Alerts page (/alerts) to see everything in one place.

What's Included in Each Plan

Feature	Starter	Professional	Max
Portfolio mark alerts	All categories	All categories	All categories
Tracked owner alerts	All categories	All categories	All categories
Watch search alerts	Not included	Included	Included
Monitoring frequency	2x daily	2x daily	2x daily

Related Features

• Tracking Owners & Competitors — How to add and manage tracked owners
• Knockout Search — Proactive search before conflicts arise
• Markus AI — Ask Markus "What alerts fired this week?"