ChatterBank3 mins ago
Slogans
7 Answers
How do you protect a slogan?
Like "Coca Cola is it" or "just do it"?
Like "Coca Cola is it" or "just do it"?
Answers
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You don't patent it. Patents are for high end technological inventions, not slogans.
You want a trademark. This is done either in the UK, or it can be registered at the OHIM office in Alicante, Spain- this will give you a European Community wide trademark.
If you want to go global, this costs even more money. You would have to go to each individual country that you intend to do business in and register it there. I say 'do business in', because in the UK (at least) there is a ground for revocation based on non-use over a period of time. That's why trademarking slogans you won't use isn't a good plan- that and the thousands it would cost.
Alternatively, do what most businesses do and don't trademark it (saves a small company valuable funds). When you start to use it, you most likely begin to generate 'goodwill' over the slogan that customers and the general public come to recognise as your business tagline. With this, one can then protect through an action called 'passing off'. This is the unregistered trademark law, but can be harder to prove owing to the requirement of goodwill (hence why people still register trademarks).
Hope that windbag of answer sorts your question out!
You want a trademark. This is done either in the UK, or it can be registered at the OHIM office in Alicante, Spain- this will give you a European Community wide trademark.
If you want to go global, this costs even more money. You would have to go to each individual country that you intend to do business in and register it there. I say 'do business in', because in the UK (at least) there is a ground for revocation based on non-use over a period of time. That's why trademarking slogans you won't use isn't a good plan- that and the thousands it would cost.
Alternatively, do what most businesses do and don't trademark it (saves a small company valuable funds). When you start to use it, you most likely begin to generate 'goodwill' over the slogan that customers and the general public come to recognise as your business tagline. With this, one can then protect through an action called 'passing off'. This is the unregistered trademark law, but can be harder to prove owing to the requirement of goodwill (hence why people still register trademarks).
Hope that windbag of answer sorts your question out!
Oh and just to help you, pink-kittens, a patent requires an invention that is beyond the state of the art, which is novel and not obvious to the reasonable man skilled in the field of the patent claim. It cannot have been disclosed to anyone except as necessary to test it or for registration purposes. It also has a public benefit requirement.
So as you can see, a patent is completely out of the question for maybe 6 reasons!
123everton, the reason that Umbro couldn't use "Just Do It" is either because the slogan has been successfully registered as a TM, or because it has sufficient goodwill to protect it via passing off. If I said to you "Just do it", you'd know what brand I was speaking of. It's far more complicated than that, but it's a good place to start!
So as you can see, a patent is completely out of the question for maybe 6 reasons!
123everton, the reason that Umbro couldn't use "Just Do It" is either because the slogan has been successfully registered as a TM, or because it has sufficient goodwill to protect it via passing off. If I said to you "Just do it", you'd know what brand I was speaking of. It's far more complicated than that, but it's a good place to start!
1 to 7 of 7
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