Can you trademark a color?

[sky14kemea]

they probably mean that particular shade of brown, but even then, i doubt they'd win in court XD

since people have already done dibs on my fav colours im screwed anyway

 

[TriggerUnhappy]

Well the gay community already took the whole color spectrum so I don't know...

 

[PxDn Ninja]

Well, if you can, I call Blellow!, its a combination of blue and yellow!

Call me crazy, but isn't that green.

 

[Deef]

Not in the US, yes in Australia.

EDIT: No wait that's copyrights.

 

[FanDam]

Haven't read the other responses but yes, you can trademark a color. IANAL but I believe no other shipping company can use UPS's brown, etc.

The earliest example I remember reading about was that Altria/Phillip Morris had trademarked the distinctive light purple color of Milka bars.

 

[TenthRegeneration]

Well the gay community already took the whole color spectrum so I don't know...

Take the color 'Ninja'...it's invisible.

Edit: It's actually a shade of Infrared (sP?), but don't tell anyone.

 

[NeedAUserName]

Well, if you can, I call Blellow!, its a combination of blue and yellow!

Call me crazy, but isn't that green.

Blasphemer!

 

[Romaru]

As far as I know there are now regulations in place to stop you copyrighting anything that has high use in public forum. So colours, musical notes, alphabet letters. Hell if you think about it you could copyright the word pavement and force councils to pay you loads for replacing them.

AND, I think they might have been thought up after some jackass copyrighted the song "Happy Birthday To You"

Pretty sure that was Michael Jackson for anyone interested.

 

[forever saturday]

My guess is that you can't trademark a colour in the same way you can't trademark water. Its something that appears naturally, you didn't make it. Now if its, say, a special colour of ink or paint or something that you can only get by one way, then you could trademark the process by which you make the ink/paint/etc. But the colour, no.

 

[Cucumber]

If there was anything I would copyright/trademark/whatever, it would be cake.

ALL UR CAEK ARE BELONG TO ME!

There, I finally said it =)

 

[internutt]

Purple was trademarked by Cadburies. Therefore they are the only chocolate company allowed to use the colour on their packaging.

 

[InvisibleMilk]

Black's a value not a color.

 

[Ismix]

hurr hurr hurr.
me claims nunkle.





That's a color right?

 

[Harbinger_]

I don't care I'm calling the color Black.

 

[Cucumber]

Just noticed:

I recently purchased a geiger counter off of ebay, and I noticed something in the fine print from UPS: "UPS, the UPS Shield trademark and the color brown are trademarks of United Parcel Service of America, Inc. All rights reserved."

Now, this may just be me having a 'blonde moment' (which would be strange, because my hair is brown, but I digress) but can you trademark a color?

And just to generate some more descussion: If you could trademark a color, which color, and why/why not?

Wanna get your hair dyed?

 

[ssgt splatter]

yeah i own everything green so all you're money is actually mine so if you could just mail it to me

That made me laugh. B-E-A-UTIFUL!

 

[Dr Spaceman]

Now, this may just be me having a 'blonde moment' (which would be strange, because my hair is brown, but I digress) but can you trademark a color?

Often times, trade marks only go so far as to cover usage of the color in regards to competing businesses. So if you open a car dealership, you can use brown, but not if you open an express mail delivery service (a la UPS).

An example of this is the (recently settled) lawsuit between Apple Records (The Beatles' record label) and Apple Computer. Apple Records sued Apple Computer on trademark laws when iTunes was created, and Apple Computer "entered" the music industry. Before that, there was no real trademark issue because they weren't competitors. In a sense, both of these companies have trademarked "apples," but only as they relate to music and computers. Don't worry, you can still have an apple as a nice afternoon snack.

 

[Zeke109]

Why don't I just trademark water, the sun, and the FREAKIN' PLANET VENUS?!
Actually, Here's the legal documentation:

 

[TenthRegeneration]

hurr hurr hurr.
me claims nunkle.





That's a color right?

Yes, it's sort of a Spartain Ninja Badazz Orangish blue...Does that make sense?

 

[Zeke109]

Why don't I just trademark water, the sun, and the FREAKIN' PLANET VENUS?!
Actually, Here's the legal documentation:

Suck on that, International Star Registry!