the factoid of the matter. Colour trademarks: It’s not all black and white

The subject of colour has had quite a few firms seeing red – or turning purple, considering their use of it to be a matter of intellectual property. Cadbury lost to Nestle after a five-year lawsuit over the latter’s use of the colour purple, a shade that Pantone calls 2865C. The brand had introduced it as a tribute to Queen Victoria, who had given it a royal warrant in 1854, upon which it became the queen’s official cocoa and chocolate maker. Cadbury had applied to trademark the purple for a certain set of chocolate goods, but Nestle objected on the basis that the mark conveyed a characteristic of the goods through its purple packaging but had not acquired distinctive character through use. It also said the colour is commonly used in the chocolate business. Cadbury’s losing the case implies that other brands are free to use the colour, which, Cadbury fears, will damage its business.

Corporations can trademark a colour if they can justify it represents their brand, and usually this restriction applies only within relevant industries.

Shoe brand Louboutin and Yves Saint Laurent also fought a battle over the use of red soles. Louboutin sued YSL for using them on its red pumps. A New York court ruled that the red soles would be trademarked as Louboutin’s on all shoes except fully red ones.

Telecom brand T-Mobile, which has a trademark on a specific shade of magenta, RAL 4010, has objected to a few other entities using the colour. In 2008, it sent the website engadget a letter, asking it to stop using a similar shade on its engadget mobile blog. In 2013, it sued AT&T, alleging that the latter’s subsidiary, Alo Wireless, is using the colour to confuse customers in the subject of both companies’ off-contract plans. Later on, a court told AT&T to stop using the colour.

Insulation and building products company Owens Corning uses the colour pink for its products. It was the first company in the US to trademark a colour, in 1987. It also uses the Pink Panther in its marketing, and in 2007 paid MGM a hefty fees for exclusive rights to use the well-known movie character for another 15 years.

New York-based jeweller Tiffany & Co’s trademarked blue box is such an object of desire that empty ones are sold online as collector’s items. A turquoise shade of blue, the colour is also called robin’s egg blue or forget-me-not blue, and the blue paper for it is made specially by Pantone. UPS, the American parcel delivery service, has trademarked the colour brown in the US. Companies such as Pantone create and also customise colours that are used and trademarked by brands.

Compiled by Sravanthi Challapalli

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