The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) says that your trademark will protect your symbols and words from those of other manufacturers or sellers and that they denote your service or product’s source if it meets certain criteria.
So, if you want to trademark a slogan you will have to follow the USPTO guidelines and demonstrate that the slogan is used specifically by you or your company and that is not used by anyone else.
Here are the steps you should take to trademark your slogan:
1. Get familiar with the guidelines and basic principles involved in registering a trademark. You can find that information online at the USPTO website. Look for the Fact Booklet and their FAQs section.
2. Use the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website to search for any existing trademark(s) that could conflict with the one you would like to register. The TESS system is free to use.
3. Write out an identification of your goods/services. This is a description of your slogan. It has to be specific enough to differentiate your product or service from anything that may be similar. You can find help about writing this document on the USPTO site as well. Look for the Acceptable Identification of Goods and Services Manual.
4. You will need to submit a representation of your trademark with your application. Your slogan should be submitted in standard character format. This means that you aren’t making any specific claims for a particular font, style, color or design. You will only be submitting the words.
5. You will have to file your trademark application and pay a fee that will probably be between $275 to $325 if you file online; or $375 if you file through snail mail. You can file your application and pay your fee using a credit card or an electronic funds transfer via the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) on the USPTO site.
6. Keep your receipt because it will include a serial number. This is the number you will have to use for any communications about your slogan with the USPTO.
7. You can check the status of your application on the Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) database after you’ve submitted your application and fees.
Once you’ve gone through this process you can anticipate waiting anywhere from five to six months before you receive a response from the United States Patent and Trademark Office about your application.
If you follow this process you should be able to trademark a slogan without too much difficulty.