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<p>This paper examines whether consumer-oriented linguistic features that make brand slogans effective in the marketplace also influence their competitive position on the trademark register. The study analyses 688 global brand slogans using computational linguistic methods to capture processing fluency, lexical distinctiveness, lexical diversity, and emotional valence, and links these features to a USPTO-based measure of competitive trademark crowding operationalised as the inverse of the number of similar registered trademarks. The results reveal an apparent disconnect between consumer-oriented linguistic heuristics and trademark registry outcomes. These preliminary findings suggest that the linguistic construction of a slogan has a negligible impact on its competitive position in the trademark register, and that the factors driving legal protectability lie largely outside the domain of linguistic design. The results challenge the assumption that linguistically effective slogans automatically translate into protectable brand assets, and underscore the need for closer coordination between branding and legal teams when developing verbal brand identity.</p>

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Lost in translation: why linguistically effective slogans fail to reduce trademark crowding

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月25日

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  • Brian Whelan

摘要

This paper examines whether consumer-oriented linguistic features that make brand slogans effective in the marketplace also influence their competitive position on the trademark register. The study analyses 688 global brand slogans using computational linguistic methods to capture processing fluency, lexical distinctiveness, lexical diversity, and emotional valence, and links these features to a USPTO-based measure of competitive trademark crowding operationalised as the inverse of the number of similar registered trademarks. The results reveal an apparent disconnect between consumer-oriented linguistic heuristics and trademark registry outcomes. These preliminary findings suggest that the linguistic construction of a slogan has a negligible impact on its competitive position in the trademark register, and that the factors driving legal protectability lie largely outside the domain of linguistic design. The results challenge the assumption that linguistically effective slogans automatically translate into protectable brand assets, and underscore the need for closer coordination between branding and legal teams when developing verbal brand identity.