How to Look Up Slogans That Are Trademarked

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When you hear a common or popular slogan for a specific car, shoe or brand of cereal, you are hearing a trademark of that product. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a trademark can be a design, symbol, word or phrase that distinguishes and identifies one product from others. If you’re brainstorming slogans for a product of your own, look up slogans that are trademarked on the USPTO website to see whether you’ve come up with an original slogan.

Navigate to the USPTO website at uspto.gov and click the “search for trademarks” link in the upper right corner.

Select a search option to search for a slogan within the USPTO database of trademarks. The basic search function that will return reliable results is the “basic word mark search (new user)” option under the “Select a Search Option” section. This will enable you to search for words only -- no design marks.

Set the search parameters by choosing between “plural and singular” or “singular" and between “live and dead,” “live” and “dead.” Enter the entire slogan in the “Search Term” field. Choose whether you want the results to contain all search terms, any search terms or exact search terms.

Click the “Submit Query” button to search the database. View the results. If the slogan you enter already has a trademark, you will receive information about the filing date, the owner and whether the trademark is live or dead. If the slogan does not match any trademarks filed with USPTO, you will receive a message that indicates that no records match the criteria of the query.