Opposition windows

Severity, deadlines, and the four window states attached to every alert

When an alert involves a published mark in a supported jurisdiction, Signa attaches the opposition deadline and a window state so you can route on urgency. The state transitions automatically as the deadline approaches.

The four window states

State	When	Severity
open	Window is open and the deadline is 14 days or more away.	normal
closing_soon	Less than 14 days remaining.	high
critical	Less than 7 days remaining.	critical
closed	The window has elapsed.	normal

State transitions happen on every ingestion sync that touches the office. A mark published Friday afternoon and crossing into critical the following week requires no extra scheduling in your application.

If the mark moves into a status that ends the window early (for example abandonment), opposition_window_status flips to closed on the next sync that observes the change.

Severity routing

severity is automatically escalated based on the window state, which makes it easy to page on-call only when a window is genuinely close to closing.

const critical = await signa.alerts.list({ severity: 'critical' });
for await (const a of critical) {
  if (a.opposition_window_status === 'critical') {
    notifyAttorney(a.trademark_id, a.must_act_by);
  }
}

For the recommended polling cadence and routing pattern, see Severity-based routing.

Worked example — USPTO publication

A new mark publishes in the USPTO Trademark Official Gazette on 2026-04-15. In the US, the standard opposition window is 30 days from publication.

Date	What happens	opposition_window_status	severity	must_act_by
2026-04-15	Mark published.	open	normal	2026-05-15
2026-05-02	Routine sync, nothing new.	open	normal	2026-05-15
2026-05-08	< 14 days remaining.	closing_soon	high	2026-05-15
2026-05-12	< 7 days remaining.	critical	critical	2026-05-15
2026-05-16	Window elapsed.	closed	normal	2026-05-15

must_act_by is the latest moment to file — end of day in the office’s local timezone, ISO 8601.

Coverage

Opposition rules are wired for 21 jurisdictions:

US (domestic and Madrid designations), EU, DE, GB, CH, FR, BX, SE, WIPO Madrid, CA, AU, NO, DK, FI, IS, PL, TH, VN, PH, BR, MX.

The full registry is available via GET /v1/opposition-rules.

For marks in jurisdictions without a wired rule, opposition_window_status and must_act_by are both null.