Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

for corporations is it a copyright or a trademark on tag lines?

Hi! We are a new company and have added clever tag lines to our products that we want to further market. Would we need to copyright these or trademark?

Also, does the copyright/trademark belong to the name of the company or the person who wrote the tag lines? We have paid her an hourly wage.

thank you!


Asked on 10/11/04, 7:58 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Terri DiPaolo

Re: for corporations is it a copyright or a trademark on tag lines?

coyright law requires your agreement with the author be in writing...it is not clear that you own the materials. I suggest getting the employee to sign an employment / work-for-hire agreement. Depending on what you are marketing (a product or a service) you may want to file a service mark instead of a trademark.

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Answered on 10/12/04, 1:36 pm
Christopher M. Brainard, Esq. C. M. Brainard & Associates - (310) 266-4115

Re: for corporations is it a copyright or a trademark on tag lines?

They belong to the company, since you hired her. You should register copyright and register trademark. You may contact me.

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Answered on 10/12/04, 3:24 am


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