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You are a brand protection analyst at a sportswear company. You need to track what your three main competitors — NovaSole Inc., VeloGrip Corp., and TrailEdge Ltd. — are filing across the US and EU. When a competitor files a new mark in your core classes (25, 28, and 35), you want to know within 48 hours. This guide shows how to build a competitor monitoring pipeline using the Signa API.

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Prerequisites

  • A Signa API key with search:read, trademarks:read, portfolios:manage, and events:read scopes
  • Competitor company names or owner IDs
1

Identify competitor owner records

Start by searching for each competitor’s owner profile. The owner entity in Signa consolidates all filings under one canonical record, even when name variants exist across offices.
# Search for a competitor by name
curl "https://api.signa.so/v1/owners?q=NovaSole&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SIGNA_API_KEY"
Expected output:
NovaSole -> own_ns001 (NOVASOLE INC, 87 marks)
VeloGrip -> own_vg002 (VELOGRIP CORP, 142 marks)
TrailEdge -> own_te003 (TRAILEDGE LTD, 53 marks)
If a competitor has subsidiaries or name variants, use the owner detail endpoint to check aliases[] for alternate names the API has resolved. This prevents you from tracking an incomplete picture.
2

Review each competitor's portfolio profile

Pull the full owner detail to understand each competitor’s filing patterns, top classes, jurisdictions, and preferred attorneys.
curl https://api.signa.so/v1/owners/own_ns001 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SIGNA_API_KEY"
Expected output:
{
  "canonical_name": "NOVASOLE INC",
  "stats": {
    "trademark_count": 87,
    "registered_count": 72,
    "registration_rate": 0.83,
    "jurisdiction_count": 8,
    "top_classes": [
      { "class": 25, "count": 34 },
      { "class": 28, "count": 22 },
      { "class": 35, "count": 15 }
    ],
    "yearly_trend": [
      { "year": 2024, "filed": 12, "registered": 10 },
      { "year": 2025, "filed": 18, "registered": 14 },
      { "year": 2026, "filed": 7, "registered": 2 }
    ]
  }
}
An acceleration in the yearly_trend (18 filings in 2025 vs 12 in 2024) signals the competitor is expanding aggressively. This is a leading indicator for new product launches or market entries.
3

List recent filings by competitor

Pull each competitor’s most recent filings to see what brands they are pursuing right now.
# Recent filings from NovaSole in classes 25, 28, 35
curl "https://api.signa.so/v1/owners/own_ns001/trademarks?nice_classes[]=25&nice_classes[]=28&nice_classes[]=35&sort=-filing_date&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SIGNA_API_KEY"
Expected output:
Recent filings for own_ns001:
  NOVASOLE APEX  | uspto | examining  | Filed 2026-02-28 | Classes 25,28
  NOVASOLE STRIDE | euipo | filed      | Filed 2026-01-15 | Classes 25,35
  NOVA TRACTION   | euipo | examining  | Filed 2025-11-20 | Classes 28
4

Set up competitor watches

Create a watch for each competitor to get alerted when they file new marks. One watch can track multiple owners.
curl -X POST https://api.signa.so/v1/watches \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SIGNA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: watch-competitors-sportswear" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Sportswear competitors - new filings",
    "watch_type": "competitor",
    "criteria": {
      "owner_ids": ["own_ns001", "own_vg002", "own_te003"]
    },
    "triggers": ["new_filing"],
    "delivery_channels": ["api"],
    "scope_filters": {},
    "metadata": { "team": "brand-protection", "priority": "high" }
  }'
Expected output:
{
  "id": "wat_comp01",
  "object": "watch",
  "watch_type": "competitor",
  "name": "Sportswear competitors - new filings",
  "status": "active",
  "alert_count": 0
}
5

Add a class-based watch for your core categories

Complement the competitor watch with a broader class-based watch. This catches filings from any entity in your core classes and jurisdictions, not just known competitors.
curl -X POST https://api.signa.so/v1/watches \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SIGNA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: watch-class-25-28-us-eu" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Class 25/28 new filings - US & EU",
    "watch_type": "class",
    "criteria": {
      "nice_classes": [25, 28],
      "offices": ["uspto", "euipo"]
    },
    "triggers": ["new_filing"],
    "delivery_channels": ["api"],
    "metadata": { "review_frequency": "weekly" }
  }'
6

Aggregate filing trends over time

Use the search API with aggregations_only to get filing volume trends without downloading individual records. This is useful for quarterly competitive reports.
# Get filing volume breakdown for a competitor in the last 3 years
curl -X POST https://api.signa.so/v1/trademarks/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SIGNA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "query": "",
    "filters": {
      "owner_id": "own_ns001",
      "filing_date": { "gte": "2024-01-01" }
    },
    "options": {
      "aggregations": ["filing_year", "nice_classes", "office_code", "mark_feature_type"],
      "aggregations_only": true
    }
  }'
Expected output:
{
  "aggregations": {
    "filing_year": { "2024": 12, "2025": 18, "2026": 7 },
    "nice_classes": { "25": 18, "28": 12, "35": 7 },
    "office_code": { "uspto": 20, "euipo": 12, "ukipo": 5 },
    "mark_feature_type": { "word": 28, "figurative": 7, "combined": 2 }
  }
}
A sudden increase in figurative marks might indicate a competitor is developing new logos or brand identities — often a sign of upcoming product launches. Word mark filings in new jurisdictions suggest geographic expansion plans.

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Building a competitive dashboard

Combine the above queries into a weekly report that tracks:
MetricSource
New filings per competitor (this week)GET /v1/owners/{id}/trademarks?filing_date[gte]=...
Class distribution shiftsPOST /v1/trademarks/search with aggregations_only
New jurisdictions enteredOwner detail stats.jurisdictions delta
Opposition activityGET /v1/proceedings?party_owner_id=...
Unacknowledged alertsGET /v1/alerts?watch_id=...&status=unacknowledged

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What’s next

Trademark Clearance

Run a clearance search against your competitors’ marks before launching a new brand.

Opposition Tracking

Monitor TTAB proceedings where your competitors are involved as parties.

M&A Due Diligence

Evaluate a competitor’s full IP portfolio if an acquisition is on the table.