T-Mobile Claims Trademark In the Color Magenta

An anonymous reader writes "Yesterday Engadget Mobile received a nice letter from Deutsche Telekom / T-Moblie demanding that they stop using the color magenta on engadgetmobile.com. ("Yep, seriously" they say.) Today several sites have gone magenta in a show of solidarity."

Re:they have a point

[Anonymous Coward]

If you'd read engadget's article, you'd know that they changed their normal title artwork for today (Please check your calendar) as a formal "Go Forth and Procreate" to Deutsch Telecom.

Re:Are they kidding?

[0100010001010011]

Caterpillar has Cat Yellow
John Deere has John Deere Green

Re:they have a point

[Hubec]

The magenta "t-mobile" is a temporary response to the letter (in legal terms I believe it's called a raspberry). Their standard logo doesn't look like T-Mobil's at all.

Re:A throwback to the Roman Empire?

[Jeremy Erwin]

If you weren't a noble, could you even afford a purple cloak? Today's purple dyes are cheap because they are synthetic.

UPS Brown

[MachDelta]

Believe it. "Pullman Brown" [wikipedia.org]" (officially "UPS Brown" [wikipedia.org]) has been a trademark of United Parcel Service for a looong friggin time. They're pretty aggressive about protecting it too, seeing as how their whole corporate image is tied to the color so strongly ("what can Brown do for you?" etc.)

So unfortunatly, colors being trademarked is nothing new.

Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co., '91, SCOTUS

[davidwr]

Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co., Inc. [wikipedia.org] is a 1991 Supreme Court case that said you can trademark a single color in certain circumstances.

Re:April Fools, right?

[Indefinite, Ephemera]

Certainly the thing about T-Mobile claiming power over magenta has been going on for a while.

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/11/04/beware-t-mobile-owns-the-color-magenta/ [colourlovers.com]

Re:Are they kidding?

[BeeRockxs]

Noone is suing anyone.
If you had bothered to RTFA, you'd know that T-Mobiles lawyers just asked Engadget not to use that color.

Re:Are they kidding?

[Anonymous Coward]

UPS has UPS Brown

Note that in general, trademarking a color is specific to the business. Other shippers can't use UPS's Brown, but you can make a tractor in UPS Brown.

Similarly, other tractor makers can't use John Deer Green, but a package shipper isn't prohibited from using the color.

Re:A throwback to the Roman Empire?

[Deadstick]

That's precisely why it was considered a royal color.

rj

Not just color

[wsanders]

The engadget people are dissembling. If you look at http://www.engadgetmobile.com/ [engadgetmobile.com] the logo, in addition to being magenta, looks like this:

engadgeT--mobile

I think they might have a problem.

Old News?

[beadfulthings]

Since this "Free Magenta" [freemagenta.nl] website has been around for several months in The Netherlands. Lots of food for thought there, such as what do we do about Gay Pride, the Pink Panther, and C*YK color systems? There are suggested error messages for users of Photoshop ("Sorry, this color does not belong to you!") as well as touching eulogies for good old #FF0090 -- or 255-0-144, whichever you prefer. They date the demise of magenta as a free color to 2007.

Re:A throwback to the Roman Empire?

[STrinity]

This isn't humor -- the story came out yesterday, March 31st [cultureofownership.org].

Re:Not just color

[wish bot]

They've just changed it - on purpose. I think it's great they've got the balls to do that - so many people pussyfoot around these issues today. What colour are they going to use - seriously?! There is no relationship between engadget and t-mobile, and it never even crossed anyone's mind that there might be until some overly sensitive corporate schmuck brought the lawyers in to write letters.

We've seen this all before... with Orange!

[SD NFN STM]

Orange mobile (cell) phones are at odds with Easyjet, who uses Orange as a corporate colour.

http://www.engadget.com/2005/02/21/orange-owns-orange/ [engadget.com]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3553640.stm [bbc.co.uk]

I can't remember what happened but I hope that neither side won, because Orange are stupid to try and claim ownership of a colour... and Easyjet are bastards that have sued anyone that uses the word "easy" in any domain name!

Cadbury have successfully trademarked Purple

[meowsqueak]

At least in NZ, Australia and I think the UK.

I sent them an email about it once and received a very hostile reply threatening me with 'vigorous legal action' if I tried to use purple in any confectionary context. Sheesh, I was only asking...

Re:This is an April Fool's joke.

[Veramocor]

Wrong, try again next time.

Tiffany's has trademarked a shade of blue, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffany_Blue [wikipedia.org]

Wrong, try again.

[KingSkippus]

Wrong, try again next time. Tiffany's has trademarked a shade of blue, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffany_Blue [wikipedia.org]

Wrong, try again. The color and the product have to be linked in some way, with the color being distinctive to the product. When you think of magenta, it's highly unlikely that the first thing that pops into your head is "T Mobile". T Mobile can't trademark the color magenta any more than IBM can trademark the color blue or UPS can trademark the color brown. In specific contexts, sure. In relation to specific logos or other marks, you bet. But not the color by itself in such generic cases.

Maybe you should try clicking one more link from the page you linked to here. "Whether a colour can serve as a trade mark depends on the visual perception of the viewer. Normally, the distinctiveness through use must be shown." I'm sorry, but until you can show me how magenta&mdashor any generic color&mdashis distinctively associated with T Mobile, you fail.

Re:Wrong, try again.

[jetsfandb]

It should be noted however that as the Wikipedia link suggests the specific shade of brown dubbed "UPS Brown" is trademarked specifically in the area of delivery companies and not a general trademark.

From the wikipedia link:

The brown color that UPS uses on its vehicles and uniforms is called UPS Brown. This color is often erroneously referred to as Pantone color 0607298, but this is not a valid Pantone number.[3] The color UPS Brown is trademark, which prevents other delivery companies from using it as part of their brand.