Re: Copyright Infringement on a commonly used phrase

On Fri, 16 Jun 2000, Karen E. Carballa <karencarballa[_at_]vbmc.org> wrote:
>
> We are in the process of developing a credo for our hospital and would
> like to use "May I Help You", however, we want to make certain that
> this phrase is not copyright protected. Can anyone own this phrase?

    First of all, you're talking about trademark, not copyright. Short slogans are not copyrightable. Second of all, what you need to do is a full search that covers the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, state registrations, and common law uses. (Full searches also cover trade names and domain names, but I doubt that this phrase would turn up in either of those sections.) You can get a full search from several companies, including Thomson & Thomson (1-800-692-8833), but in all honesty, you should have an experienced trademark attorney review the search for you, because there's more to it than finding the identical slogan. You also need to know how the Trademark Office works and what it is likely to consider when assessing an application for federal registration.

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Jessica R. Friedman
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