My Life. My Card. My Slogan
A few years ago, American Express starting running the "My Life. My Card." campaign, featuring De Niro, Tiger Woods and (my personal favorite) Wes Anderson. But who came up with the slogan? Stephen Goetz said he did. Goetz, a consultant for Mez Design at the time, sent Amex a proposal:
"`My Life, My Card' American Express delivers personalized cards to its cardholders!"
Goetz's idea, according to AP, was to "enable credit card customers to personalize a card by choosing a picture to be printed on the card's face." Amex went ahead with its own "My Life. My Card." campaign and sought a declaratory judgment that it wasn't trampling on any of Goetz's rights. Goetz counterclaimed for misappropriation and TM infringement. Goetz lost and appealed.
On Monday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found for Amex. Why? According to the court,
"Goetz employed the slogan `My Life, My Card' to generate interest among potential licensee credit card companies and not to differentiate the origin of his goods or services."
The appeals court said the slogan served as "a mere advertisement for itself as a hypothetical commodity."
"There can be no trademark absent goods sold and no service mark without services rendered," the court added.
The entire story is here.
