Patent Attorney and Founder
I have several slogans and a colloquium that I need trademarked. What is the pathway for protection proprietary?
Yeah, thanks for jumping in, Charlie. So, slogans, colloquium, you know, everyday sayings – they can potentially be trademarked, registered as Federal trademarks depending on where you’re using them, right? You don’t need to give the exact phrasing or anything like that, but if they’re used, for example, like “you betcha” here in Minnesota, if you put that on a t-shirt, you could potentially register that. Now, I guarantee it probably already is registered as a federal trademark – “you betcha.” Yeah, now, if a phrase is so commonplace that it doesn’t have any real meaning anymore, there’s the possibility, like “you betcha,” that couldn’t be registered. So, we’d have to look into how widely known that phrase is and how often it’s associated with apparel, for example. But, yeah, you could register common phrases, especially if they don’t have any meaning in that particular product category.