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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."

6 of 249 comments (clear)

  1. Way to Stick It To Your Sponsor by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Did anyone else find it uncomfortably odd that there was a big magenta T-Mobil ad right in the middle of Engadget's page as they "stuck it to them."

    You know, refusing to host their magenta ads might be a better way to stick it to them ... or perhaps they were asking you not to use magenta so that users wouldn't confuse the ad with the site?

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    My work here is dung.
  2. simple solution by hack++slash · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Engadget should just reply saying "We respect your trademark for the color Magenta, however, we are using the colour Magenta."

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    To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
  3. Re:A throwback to the Roman Empire? by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just to back that up, there is for instance this passage from the Penguin edition of Marcellinus's The Later Roman Empire: A.D. 354-378 :

    Next the affair of the [unauthorised] royal robe was investigated, and after the workers in purple had been tortured and had admitted the making of a short sleveless tunic, a man named Maras was brought forward.

  4. Re:A throwback to the Roman Empire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You could still have been a wealthy merchant without being a noble - a regular pleb wouldn't be able to afford purple dye, of course, but a number of people might.

    Also, it should be noted that only the Roman emperor was allowed to wear an entirely purple piece of clothing at all. Senators (that is, those from the senatorial class) were allowed a broad purple stripe on their tunics; equites (knights) were allowed a thin purple stripe. So even a thin purple stripe (much less expensive than full purple) could get you into trouble.

  5. Re:A throwback to the Roman Empire? by budgenator · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I read the article that it dawned on me that the color on the T-Mobile logo isn't magenta anyways the logo #e42384, and magenta is #ff00ff!

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    Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
  6. Re:ROFL by Blikkie · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wish it were a joke. When this came into the Dutch news 6 months ago or something, some people started the Free Magenta movement. T-mobile NL claimed that they were ordered to claim the colour in Dutch copyright by Deutsche Telecom AG.