When are we going to get some expansion news?

[Crushnight]

Yeah, I've been wondering that. Are they able to officially have the trademark kept secret until they are ready to announce it, or is it 100% going to be public as soon as they apply?

That'll entirely depend on how out there the name could be, if it is bonkers enough that no one would reasonably come up with it and trademark it themselves, it could be safe to just not trademark until just before announcement. Else trademark the moment you decided on name. Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, all have commonly used words meshed together so reasonable to assume others may come up with such names, but say Larboardhollow would be something you could leave untrademarked for longer because likelihood someone else would trademark that is exceptionally low.

[MrThinker]

...if it is bonkers enough that no one would reasonably come up with it and trademark it themselves, it could be safe to just not trademark until just before announcement. Else trademark the moment you decided on name.

This is the scenario I thought of, but dismissed because I really don't know if they'd be able to make an "out there" title work.