Can I put my own slogan on a shirt, etc. and sell it and have rights to it? For example, as the slogan 'life is good' is sold..

Yes you can but unless you plan to use the slogan as a trademark, no protection will be available. Slogans do not get copyright protection. Remember that the issue is not whether you get protection, but whether you have the financial means to enforce your rights. Do not let the issue of protection stop you from starting your business of placing YOUR slogans on shirts. Good luck

I can't think of any business which has trademarked the slogan, "Life is Good." Nike's slogan is, "Just Do It." Other companies have slogans which immediately bring to mind the product sold by that company. So as you select slogans for your shirts, try to avoid using slogans which have already been marketed by a large company to sell their product if you want to avoid any unnecessary litigation problems. However, even if you do accidentally transgress, the company would have to take notice and have enough concern to send you a "Cease And Desist" letter. In which case you can then evaluate if the threat is bonafide or not. As it is, it sounds like you can go forward with this slogan and hope for the best. One way to be proactive is to do a search on Google for each slogan you are considering, to see if it is connected to any particular marketable product. If your use of the slogan creates no confusion with the average consumer, then you are "probably" safe. I say "probably" because there is no way to guarantee anything in law. A company might use a slogan, and have no right to sue you, but do so anyway just because they are big, and you are a small company. Fear of intimidation sometimes is the LAW, rather than the actual law itself.

This depends on the slogan and how you use it. Copyright law will not ordinarily protect short quotes or slogans. But short slogans can sometimes become trademarks if they become associated with specific goods and services... But you cannot just select a slogan, file for trademark registration, and then proclaim yourself to have broad trademark rights. Trademark rights arise from use in commerce--not registration. Thus, if you develop a unique trademark that becomes associated with your products (shirts) in the minds of consumers, you might be able to generate trademark protection. I seriously doubt that you could do this with a well-known, generic phrase such as "life is goods" because that phrase is already common used for many purposes, including on many T Shirts and other products. You need to find a slogan that is not being used for commercial products on products such as the ones you want to market. And even then it may be hard to get the protection you want if the product is used on other products. You are running against something important----the First Amendment Right of Free Speech. You cant capture ownership of a commonly used phrase such as "Life Is Good" very easily because even if you tried very hard to associated this phrase with your products, people would be free to use it on other products or even on products that compete with you. More fundamentally--I think you are worried too much about getting IP protection for your slogans. Your real concern should be that you don't use slogans that have already become trademarks owned by someone else, and/or that might violate rights of publicity of actors or other celebrities associated with the slogans. Your main problem here is assuring you do not violate third party IP rights. For this, you need to retain legal counsel to conduct a clearance analysis.

Search for any trademarks. in relevant services/goods:. http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchss&state=4805:qpltxw.1.1

If a slogan is distinctive and not confusingly similar to other slogans, and if the slogan is used to indicate the source of the goods (e.g. the slogan is associated with the manufacturer of the shirts) then a slogan may be protectable as a trademark. If the slogan is not being used to indicate the manufacturer of the goods, but rather just as a design on a shirt, then it may not be protectable as a trademark.