Why trademark a phrase

How Much Does it Cost? How to Trademark a Phrase or Slogan? How to Trademark a Phrase In the digital age, a slogan is extremely valuable. What does Trademarking a Phrase Actually Mean? If your phrase or brand is not trademarked, your intellectual property phrases or slogans can be used in bad faith by someone else for their own business.

A number of horrific situations can arise from this. One of the worse things your untrademarked phrase or brand may be susceptible to is, a predatory third party successfully making your slogan more identifiable with their brand in comparison to yours.

A second negative impact that your phrase or brand may have is, smaller businesses may use your phrase or brand for an inferior quality merchandise. In this case, not only have you lost a potential sale, but you would have lost your brands potential of becoming recognized as the best.

In conclusion, your brand's reputation will be discredited. Difficulties And Challenges The first and most likely challenge is someone already having a trademark similar to the one you are hoping to register. Success Stories Advertising firms have come to realize that slogans can be just as valuable as the products they represent.

How to Trademark a Slogan or Phrase in the US Here are the steps you should take if you're curious as to how a phrase can be trademarked. Ask us Name E-mail Message. Leave this field blank. Our service International Trademark Search Check if your trademark is available for registration.

Read more. Remember, this must be Bona Fide Use in Commerce — Merely selling a single item to a friend in the same State does not satisfy the substantiality requirement of Section 1 a Classification.

S Application. For example, if an applicant were in the Apparel business and he intended on selling t-shirts under his new trademark, he would file his trademark in CL which encompasses clothing. Depending on which application type the trademark applicant selects, the Gov. Please speak to your trademark attorney to learn which application type is most appropriate for you. Once all if the administrative in trademark-related info has been inputted, you are ready to submit the application.

Please check your work carefully — even the slightest misstep, procedural or substantive, can invite a trademark office action from the USPTO. If your branding strategy includes the use of a catchy phrase or slogan, you should absolutely trademark your phrase.

The benefit of trademarking a phrase with the USPTO, and thus obtaining a registered trademark, rather than merely a Common-law trademark, is that the phrase will be protected throughout the United states. Thus, the applicant has the right to both enforce an infringement action against a competitor in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board AND in federal court. The former will provide the trademark holder with the opportunity to prevent the registration of a similar phrase while the provides a forum to requesst an injunction and even monetary penalities.

Your Trademarked Phrase is only entitled to protection against infringement from a sufficiently similar phrase , operating in conjunction with sufficiently similar good or service. That makes it valuable and worthy of trademark protection. A trademark protects words that describe the unique source of a product or service.

A copyright protects original music, art, and writing. Patents protect inventions and improvements to existing inventions.

A trademark is good as long as a company uses it to sell a product or service. The trademark becomes invalid if the phrase becomes a generic description for a product or service. It is claimed but not officially registered. Only if it refers to the source of product or service. The exception is if the slogan is found to have "secondary meaning. A phrase that the public associates more with a product or service than with its literal meaning has "secondary meaning.

It usually means a big investment in marketing or five years continually using the phrase for sales purposes. If a phrase becomes more associated with a business or service than its original meaning, it may be approved for trademark protection.