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You could always trademark colours. I know in the early naughties yellow pages had trademarked their yellow #ffdc00
Trademarks aren’t patents. If your art team worked to choose a specific color, and your brand relied heavily on it, it would be easy for someone else to trick customers into buying your version if it wasn’t trademarked.
It only applies to that very specific color, and it only applies within your market sector, which seems fair to me. If I started making Kadberri chocolate in the same purple wrapper, they’d be right to be upset.
Haven’t been to Aldi lately then? Kadberry purple is alive and well there
It’s difficult (as in you need massive market recognition of which the specific colour is a major component), but you are allowed to trademark specific shades of a colour. Even then, like regular trademarks, you can only make the trademark in the specific field in which it is used commercially. In this case “Cadbury Purple” is registered in class 30, which covers most kinds of chocolate packaging. You can see their registration here.
Kinda, usually if it’s a big part of your brand. And it only applies to that companies area of expertise. Like they couldn’t stop a car being made with that color. But you can’t make chocolate eggs like that. You can’t sell tractors the exact same color John Deere makes them.
It’s still bullshit though.
Not sure it’s enforceable in every country/jurisdiction, but yeah, someplace they can. There was a big controversy about it about 2 years back.
https://thehustle.co/can-a-corporation-trademark-a-color/
First link I found, there are properly better sources out there, but that’ll do for a general overview.
I don’t see how t-mobile can have the one color trademarked and I’ve never seen them use that particular one. Seattle has a stadium with the version they use in marketing, not the one they have trademarked. No sense.
I’d be shocked if Tiffany Blue isn’t trademarked. Or Louboutin red. I’m sure Tiffany’s isn’t going to sue you if you send out your family’s Christmas newsletter on a Tiffany blue background, but I wouldn’t suggest using it for a shopping bag or bracelet.
Tiffany’s isn’t going to sue you if you send out your family’s Christmas newsletter on a Tiffany blue background
Trademarks are industry-specific, so if Tiffany’s has a trademark, it’s likely specific to jewelry-related stuff.
Completely true. I was more responding to the idea that you can’t trademark a color. The general idea as I’ve always heard in in court evaluations is whether the potential violation would cause consumer confusion.
Some companies are both quite aggressive and sometimes successful in trademark disputes even in less-related industries, of course. A certain fruit company and a Scottish fast food company come to mind. While not colors, those are examples of companies whose trademarks are granted within an industry but whose defenses have significantly exceeded it.
I’m pretty sure the Tiffany legal team doesn’t have a budget that exceeds that of some F500 companies though…
This has come from Cadbury’s battle with Darrel Lea. Both chocolate makers have used the colour purple for decades.
Last I heard, Cadbury lost and Darrel Lea could use purple for their chocolate still. However, Darrel Lea have gone to a brown paper theme on their chocolates. So, I don’t know what’s going on. Maybe Cadbury bribed Darrel Lea to change their branding after court action failed? HEaven knows Darrel Lea could have used a financial boost this past decade.
Maybe they realised Cadbury has better brand recognition and using purple makes it look like a second rate bootleg chocolate to the average ignorant customers.
Yes. Long time now. It’s called trade dress. It’s more nuanced than you think however.
You’ll presumably be amazed at what can be trademarked then. The one interesting thing that no-one has successfully managed to trademark yet in the UK (and I think the US) is a smell.
My colon accepts the challenge
T Mobile trademarked magenta ffs
Their marketing departments are smoking fucking crack
This is for the UK, Cadbury’s purple has been a registered mark since 2006 here
Harley-Davidson tried to patent their engine noise at one time.
Now, in the future space year of 2023, they have three bikes that don’t even make that noise.
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It’s the actual colour. The trademark is only for a specific industry though - chocolate in this case. So another chocolate manufacturer can’t use the exact same purple colour in their packaging, but for example a laptop manufacturer could make their laptop that colour with no issues (as long as the laptop isn’t chocolate).
