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T-Mobile Claims Trademark In the Color Magenta

Posted by kdawson on from the quit-breathing-my-patented-air dept.

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."

8 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Are they kidding? by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Caterpillar has Cat Yellow
    John Deere has John Deere Green

  2. Re:they have a point by Hubec · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  3. Re:A throwback to the Roman Empire? by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 4, Informative

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

  4. UPS Brown by MachDelta · · Score: 3, Informative

    Believe it. "Pullman Brown"" (officially "UPS Brown") 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.

  5. Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co., '91, SCOTUS by davidwr · · Score: 4, Informative

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

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  6. Re:Are they kidding? by BeeRockxs · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  7. Re:This is an April Fool's joke. by Veramocor · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wrong, try again next time.

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

    --
    Veramocor
  8. Wrong, try again. by KingSkippus · · Score: 4, Informative

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

    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.