Trademark registration is often treated as a back-office legal task. For communications professionals – who are increasingly chasing quick-turnaround trends and fast-paced news cycles – running a slogan, phrase, or campaign through legal channels can feel like an unnecessary barrier.
But when communications and legal teams work together, trademarks can be more than just a box to check: they become a strategic asset that help brands strengthen credibility and own conversations.
Communications Teams Create Trademark-Worthy Assets
When thinking about trademarks, most professionals only consider protecting the basics, like company names and logos. While these assets are essential, they’re only one part of a larger legal strategy.
Indeed, some of the most valuable, yet underlooked, brand assets today are created by communications teams: campaign names, slogans, thought leadership phrases, distinctive visuals, and even sounds. These elements are what make brands memorable for consumers – driving buzz, social attention, and earned media coverage. Just consider iconic phrases throughout marketing history, like the California Milk Processor Board’s mark for “Got Milk,” or Entertainment Industry Foundation’s “Stand Up To Cancer.” The organizations behind these phrases made sure to protect them before they became part of the public lexicon – meaning they could control how the messages were used and monetized over time.
The Risks of Letting IP Go Unprotected
In 2024, content creator Jools Lebron posted a video where she claimed to be “very demure, very mindful.” The internet loved the phrase, and “very demure, very mindful” took off: Lebron gained 2 million TikTok followers virtually overnight, and organizations ranging from Maybelline and Nars to NASA and the White House began leveraging the catchy phrase for their own social media posts.
The only problem? Lebron never filed a trademark, and a third party soon filed an intent to trademark “very demure, very mindful” for himself. While Lebron had legal options to challenge the application, it created a much more difficult legal path to protecting the name than if she had made the trademark filing first. In a now-deleted TikTok, she admitted through tears, “I feel like I did it wrong. I just feel like I dropped the ball.”
Lebron was ultimately able to resolve the issue after involving her legal team, but for communications professionals, the takeaway is still clear: if a slogan, campaign, or catchy phrase gains traction, it may also attract unwanted attention from opportunists looking to profit from someone else’s creativity.
Unfortunately, this situation is not a unique one for individuals or brands. Just look at the rise of “dupes” in recent years. There are companies and opportunists everywhere trying to take advantage of the momentum that other people are building. By protecting important assets early-on, brands have a much better chance of defending their intellectual property if and when copycats or trademark squatters arise.
How Trademarks Put Communications Teams in Control
Trademarks can do more than just protect a brand from malicious actors; they can be strategic assets that put brands in the driver’s seat. Instead of chasing old news, legal protection allows communications teams to trailblaze trends. When you own the trademark around a viral moment, you own the conversation.
What’s more, in an era defined by AI-generated content, misinformation and dupes, trademarks signal legitimacy. As journalists vet sources and audiences decide which brands they can trust, a registered trademark can reinforce credibility.
Practical Tips for Communications Teams
There are several practical steps that brands can implement to successfully collaborate with legal teams and use trademarks strategically, including…
- Audit phrases and campaigns. Legal teams can help communication departments review slogans, hashtags, program names and recurring campaign language to ensure they’re available and protectable.
- Involve legal early on. Don’t wait until launch day to bring your brand’s legal team on board. Legal should be closely involved with the creative process from day one – allowing trademark attorneys to flag risks, suggest alternatives, and align trademark strategy with communications goals. Waiting too long can waste resources; it’s always easier to adjust a concept early than to abandon or defend it after a campaign is live.
- Build clear usage guidelines. Once assets are protected with a federal trademark registration, collaborate with legal to create guidelines for how those assets should be used by influencers, partners, and journalists. This helps maintain brand consistency and strengthens enforcement if misuse arises later.
- Leverage trademark milestones as PR hooks. Trademark filings, approvals, or registrations can themselves be newsworthy moments. These milestones offer opportunities to “break the news” about new campaigns, activations, or brand platforms, especially when attached to broader business news.
What’s Next?
Our increasingly digital world has transformed PR and communications; campaigns, slogans, thought leadership phrases and more can turn into cultural moments overnight. But this can come at a cost: where attention follows, copycats aren’t far behind. Without protection, a brand’s most successful ideas can quickly slip out of its control.
The opportunity lies in collaboration. When PR and legal teams treat trademarks not as red tape but as strategic tools, they extend the lifespan, credibility, and impact of the stories they create.
