By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press

NEW YORK - American Express legally has the rights to its "My Life. My Card." advertising campaign featuring celebrity cardholders such as Robert De Niro and Tiger Woods, a federal appeals court said Monday, rejecting objections by a man who pitched the slogan to the company four years ago.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said American Express did not violate the rights of Stephen Goetz, who mailed a proposal to the company on July 20, 2004, with the slogan: " ‘My Life, My Card' American Express delivers personalized cards to its cardholders!"

Goetz was working at the time as a corporate consultant for a company called Mez Design when he created an idea to enable credit-card customers to personalize a card by choosing a picture to be printed on the card's face, the appeals court said.

Separate from Goetz's inquiry, the court noted, the Ogilvy Group advertising agency proposed the "My Life. My Card." campaign to American Express on July 22, 2004, and began a preliminary trademark search for the expression on July 29. Goetz registered for a patent in September 2004.

In early November 2004, American Express used the slogan as it launched a global campaign of television, print, outdoor and Internet advertising.

Although it never responded to Goetz's proposal, American Express sued him, asking U.S. District Judge Hon. Lewis Kaplan for a declaratory judgment that it had not misappropriated the slogan and that Goetz could not make a claim for infringement.

In a February 2006 judgment, Kaplan ruled in favor of American Express, dismissing Goetz's counterclaims for misappropriation and trademark infringement.

Kaplan ruled that Goetz had not used the slogan as a trademark. He noted that Goetz did not contest that American Express independently conceived of the slogan.

The appeals court said Kaplan properly tossed out the case, in part because Goetz never made actual use of the "My Life, My Card" concept.

"In sum," it said, "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.

American Express spokeswoman Joanna Lambert said the company was "pleased with the outcome."

Keith Vogt, a lawyer for Goetz, did not immediately return a telephone message for comment.