Stephen Goetz, who is based in San Francisco, said he made a pitch to the credit card giant just months before it launched its latest ad campaign.
He claims he came up with the idea for the campaign created by Ogilvy & Mather, which has also featured celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and Tiger Woods.
American Express has maintained it owns the legal rights to the slogan. However, lawyers for Goetz said he would be submitting evidence from the advertising agency.
According to sources, the two parties have held informal talks to try to resolve the matter. Ogilvy & Mather, a division of the WPP Group, has not commented on the dispute.
American Express said it came up with the tagline before July 30 2004. On September 1 2004, it registered the domain name for the campaign's website, with the ad launching in November.
Goetz claims that he set up a similarly named website and had filed a "My Life. My Card" trademark application with the patent office on September 8 2004.
American Express said that a week later it applied to use "My life. My card" for a range of credit and debit card-related business services without any knowledge of Goetz's application.
The court case could amount to millions of dollars and Judge Lewis A Kaplan at the Federal District Court in Manhattan has said that the row over brand identity could go to trial as early as December.
The American Express campaign with Winslet, which ran on print, television and online in May, featured the actress as she walked though stalls in Camden Market in London looking at items that reminded her of the many characters she has played in films.
The 60-second spot was accompanied by a print execution shot by Annie Leibovitz.
De Niro's spot in the campaign was criticised for using footage of Ground Zero in an ad directed by Martin Scorsese.
The ad ran in the US and the UK from November 2004 and followed De Niro celebrating New York by walking through the city uttering phrases such as "My East ... my West Side" with scenes of the city from Chinatown to Little Italy. A shot of Ground Zero was matched to "My heartbreak".
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