Yes, you can trademark a slogan or tagline when customers read it as a signal of who stands behind particular goods or services. The wording has to work as a brand for what you sell, and the application has to clear the same review as any other mark.
Can You Trademark a Slogan or Tagline?
A trademark tells buyers where a product or service comes from. A slogan qualifies when it does that job for your goods or services, the same way a business name or logo does.
Rights begin with use: selling under a slogan can give you enforceable rights in the area where you actually sell, without any filing. Federal registration adds protections, including a public record of your claim and a legal presumption of ownership across the country. Both routes protect the slogan as used with your products or services, so a competitor cannot adopt it for similar goods, while other people remain free to use the same words in unrelated settings.
You can also file before the slogan is in use. The USPTO accepts applications based on a real intention to use the slogan in commerce, with proof of use supplied later in the process.
What Makes a Slogan Eligible or Likely to Be Refused?
Four issues decide whether a slogan clears examination, and all of them come back to how consumers read the wording in context.
The first is whether the wording identifies a source at all. The examining attorney asks how shoppers will take the phrase: as a brand they connect with one company, or as a message anyone might print.
A slogan that describes a quality or benefit of the goods, such as “Fresh Baked Daily” for bread, runs into a different refusal for being merely descriptive. Descriptive wording can become registrable once the public has learned to treat it as a brand, which the law calls acquired distinctiveness, and that showing takes evidence of consumer recognition rather than a longer history of printing the line.
Phrases that express a sentiment or a familiar saying, such as “Drive Safely” or “I Love You,” fail for another reason: buyers read them as the message itself no matter who prints them. The same reasoning applies to trademarking a common word or phrase outside the slogan context.
Even a distinctive slogan can be refused if it resembles an earlier mark used with related goods or services.
Two Trademark Trial and Appeal Board decisions turned on these questions. An applicant sought to register ONCE A MARINE, ALWAYS A MARINE for clothing, and the Board affirmed the refusal because the evidence showed buyers took the phrase as a statement of Marine Corps affiliation rather than a sign of who made the shirts. In another case, an applicant tried to register I LOVE YOU for bracelets on which the words formed the segments of the bracelet. The Board upheld two refusals: the words conveyed an ordinary expression of affection rather than a brand, and they were confusingly similar to an existing I LUV U registration for jewelry.
How to Trademark a Slogan
A slogan goes through the same six steps as any other mark.
- Settle the exact wording and decide whether to apply for the words in standard characters or in a specific stylized design. A standard-character registration covers the words in any font.
- Search for the slogan and for similar wording in the federal database, then look at common-law uses in the marketplace. Check related goods and services in other classes as well as your own.
- Identify the owner and the goods or services the slogan will cover, then assign the correct classes.
- Choose a filing basis: actual use in commerce, or a good-faith intent to use.
- Prepare the application in Trademark Center, attach specimens if you are filing on use, and pay the fees.
- Respond to any office action, watch for publication, and, for intent-to-use filings, submit proof of use before registration issues.
Applicants domiciled in the United States can file without a lawyer; applicants domiciled abroad must use a U.S.-licensed attorney.
What Evidence Shows a Slogan Is Used as a Trademark?
A specimen has to show the slogan being used as a brand for the goods or services in the application. For products, a hang tag, a label, or the packaging works well. A product webpage can qualify when it shows the slogan near the product together with a price and a way to order. A page that only mentions the slogan, with no way to buy, draws a specimen refusal.
For services, submit advertising or a website that connects the slogan to the specific service you offer, such as a landing page for a plumbing company that pairs the tagline with a description of the plumbing work.
Clothing raises its own problem: a slogan printed large across the front of a shirt is usually read as decoration, and the USPTO issues an ornamental refusal. The same slogan on the neck label, the hang tag, or the packaging is more likely to be seen as a brand. A common informational message on a neck label is still a message, and a new label, more advertising, a claim of acquired distinctiveness, or an amendment to intent-to-use will not change how buyers read it.
How Much Does It Cost to Register a Slogan?
The base government fee for a standard application is $350 per class of goods or services.
The USPTO adds $100 per class when an application is missing required information and $200 per class when you write your own description of goods and services instead of choosing entries from the USPTO’s ID Manual. Long custom descriptions carry a further $200 per affected class for each additional 1,000 characters. Intent-to-use filers pay $150 per class for the amendment to allege use or statement of use.
As an example, a one-class intent-to-use application costs $350 to file and $150 more at the statement-of-use stage, for $500 in government fees. Attorney fees, office action responses, and later maintenance filings are separate costs.
Trademark or Copyright for a Slogan?
Copyright does not protect slogans or short phrases. Trademark law is the route for the words as a brand. If the slogan sits inside original artwork, such as an illustrated logo, copyright can cover the drawing while the words stay in trademark territory.
Before You File
Before you spend money on an application, look at five points: whether the wording functions as a brand rather than a description or a common message, whether similar marks exist for related goods or services, which goods and services you will list, whether you will file on use or intent-to-use, and whether your labels, packaging, or advertising show the slogan as a brand.
If you want a second opinion on any of those points, contact our office. I will review the slogan, the search results, and your use evidence before you file, so the application starts from the right wording and the right goods.
