Editorial policy

What we cover

Everything we publish must pass four tests.

1. It matters in the United States. It affects how marks are registered, examined, enforced or maintained in the US, or a decision a US owner has to make. Developments abroad qualify when they reach a US filing or a US brand: through the Madrid Protocol, through USPTO rules for applicants based outside the US, through filings abroad against US brands, or through a change a US filer must act on.
2. We link the primary source. The opinion, rule, notice, docket or filing is linked so you can read it yourself. Items in The Wire may rest on press reports alone. When they do, they are labeled as press.
3. There is a consequence. We can say what a filer, owner or practitioner should do or watch as a result.
4. It is not advice. We can write it without assuming anything about any reader's own facts.

If we cannot give an honest plain-language takeaway, an item gets at most a line in a tracker.

We do not publish fear-based pieces, celebrity filings that teach no doctrine, search-engine filler, or mockery of parties who lost.

What we add

Every piece answers one question: what does this mean, in general, for the attorneys and business people who deal with this issue in real life? That answer is our contribution. The facts of a case, filing or announcement are the evidence for it.

• We lead with the general meaning: the rule, pattern or practical consequence, before the details of any one case.
• We say where it stops: when it applies, when it does not, and what is still open.
• We say what changes in practice, for practitioners and for brand owners.
• We tell the specific case or news item after that, as the illustration.
• For a precedential decision of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the headline states the rule the Board set, and a short statement of the precedent comes right after it.

Sources and accuracy

• We state holdings, outcomes, citations and precedential status as the tribunal does. We summarize from the primary source, never from someone else's summary.
• We keep summary and analysis apart and label opinion as opinion. We do not present predictions about pending cases as fact.
• When we compile data ourselves, we say where it came from, how we counted it, and what its limits are.
• Guides that depend on fees, deadlines or forms carry a "last reviewed" date. We review them when the underlying rule changes.

Corrections

When we get something wrong, we correct it visibly. The corrected item carries a dated note saying what changed. We do not silently rewrite a published claim. To report an error, use the contact link in the footer. Please do not include confidential information.

Sponsorship

• Distinctive Mark is sponsored by one trademark attorney at a time. Our sponsor helps decide what we cover and how we present it.
• Our sponsor's involvement does not change how we report: we summarize from the primary source, keep summary and opinion apart, and correct errors visibly.
• Sponsor units are always labeled "Sponsored · Attorney advertising."
• Until a sponsor is signed, sponsor units show a placeholder that is labeled as one. We name a sponsor only after the sponsor has agreed to appear.
• When we cover a matter that involves our sponsor, the item says so.
• Sponsored copy must be truthful and not misleading. It may not claim "specialist" or "expert" status without the required certification or guarantee results, and it may use testimonials only with the consents and disclaimers the rules require.

How we use AI

Automated monitors and AI tools help us find sources, sort them and draft summaries. An editor reviews and approves every item before it is published, and checks it against the primary source. We do not publish machine output unreviewed. The tools do not decide what we cover.

Authorship

Distinctive Mark is published by its editors, without bylines. We do not state or imply that a piece was written or reviewed by an attorney unless it was. When that is true for an item, the item says so.

Not legal advice

Everything we publish is general information about the law, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship, and we do not answer questions about readers' own facts. We never use what our monitors find to contact applicants, registrants or parties: people who have just filed are the usual targets of misleading solicitations, and we do not imitate them.