Comment Re:"Ownership" of actor's lines ? (Score 1) 38
The rights that you are asking about are primarily copyright protections. If the work was written by the employee of an organization, the right to copy would belong to the employer first. Otherwise that right would initially belong to the author. Of course, copyrights can be bought and sold, so we don't know who actually owns the copyrights at issue. But I don't think copyright matters in this case. Not that it's irrelevant, but it probably doesn't come into play.
Trademark law doesn't let you create rights out of infringing use, so if McConaughey were violating someone else's copyright, that could be a problem. In this case, though, his use of the phrase is presumably lawful under copyright law, and trademark protection would be based on whether consumers associate that delivery and recording with him - not on ownership of the original script.
What would be protected here would not be just any use of the phrase, but one that imitates his own unique delivery. Trademark law would not prevent anyone from using that catch-phrase. It would only prevent its use in a way that implies McConoughey as the source or endorser, and that triggers consumer confusion. It is the likelihood of confusion which is the core trademark test.
I'm not a lawyer, so this is just my understanding of the laws at play.