Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

Re: Copyright protectin for a slogan and commercial script

Placing the slogan in a copyrighted piece does not, in and of itself, give you a protected slogan. You will need to give notice of your trademark. The easiest way to do this is to place the "TM" symbol after the slogan. In California, you could also file a state trademark registration for a nominal fee, although this does not give you much protection for trademark infringement claims outside the state. If you will be using the slogan over the internet or throughout the U.S. or world, I would definitely recommend a trademark registration with the US PTO. I would be happy to discuss this further with you.

Re: Copyright protectin for a slogan and commercial script

You can protect your slogan by using the TM symbol next to your slogan and it won't cost you anything. This is called a common law trademark and will mark the date that you are claiming a trademark in the slogan. You really should consider federally trademarking your slogan eventually to increase your protection, but this will suffice for now. If you want to federally trademark your slogan give me a call and I will give you a good price. It really isn't that expensive.

Re: Copyright protectin for a slogan and commercial script

No. If it's merely a phrase of words within a script, copyright protection will not protect it once it's out of the context of the script. In order to protect a slogan that identifies the source of origin, you must trademark it. Trademarks are not necessarily expensive, my rates are reasonable. Feel free to contact me.