Hi there,

As far as I know you can register your business name and tagline when you go about registering your business.

Yes, you can trademark a tag line; although I would question whether it is worth it.

There is a good chance--I hope--that no one else will be offering the same value proposition that you offer in your business. The tag line should highlight your value proposition; and therefore it would be very hard for someone to just pick it up and run with it.

It is likely, as the market changes, that you'll want to change your tag line often.

To find information about registering the trademark in the US, go here: http://www.uspto.gov/ .

I would not be overly concerned with putting several names out to poll since having a good business idea (or even a catchy name) is not a predictor of success. It normally requires whole bunch of other things, like good marketing, pricing, customer serivce and reaching a critial mass where you can start generating more business by people referring to you product.