Just read this story today while in-flight on a Delta airline flight to a commercial shoot (link below) and realized that this brought up an important question: Does it behoove you as a company to take your creative hooks and trademark them?

Well let’s look at the Employee Pricing craze that took the automotive dealership business some years ago. Had the individual branch of GM that began the phraseology trademarked it the subsequent tier 3 dealerships might not have had the run of years worth of advertising ideas to choose from.

So what are the pros and cons to trademarking things like slogans or hooks?

To better understand the question, we need to understand the terminology.  A trademark or trade mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities.

A service mark differs from a trademark in that the mark is used on the advertising of the service rather than on the packaging or delivery of the service, since there is generally no “package” to place the mark on, which is the practice for trademarks. For example, a private carrier can paint their service marks on their vehicles, such as on planes or buses.

SOURCE: Subway Trying To Trademark ‘Footlong,’ Sending Cease-And-Desist Letters.