Trademarking a Color

[tBBP 2,438]

Hmm...I suppose if any sports team has a good a shot at trademarking a color, it'd be the Buccaneers?both their current pewter, and their former orange.

Or would they even be able to do that?

[BrandMooreArt 3,766]

Hmm...I suppose if any sports team has a good a shot at trademarking a color, it'd be the Buccaneers—both their current pewter, and their former orange.

Or would they even be able to do that?

pretty sure the means of it wide open. anyone could it. id have to look into the "rules" further to be sure though

another color thats trademarked i thought of is John Deere green. "if it aint green, it aint mean!"

[andrewharrington 4,695]

Do any of these companies have what basically amounts to their own secret Pantone® color that's not in the flip books like Tiffany?

[BrandMooreArt 3,766]

Do any of these companies have what basically amounts to their own secret Pantone® color that's not in the flip books like Tiffany?

i believe thats the case for John Deere. it seems PMS 364 will get you close to their green, but not exact. im not sure if they selected a swatch PANTONE came up with previously, then trademarked it, or if PANTONE created one specifically for them though.

i looked into the color a little and found this on their legal website page: "John Deere's green and yellow color scheme, the leaping deer symbol, and John Deere are trademarks of Deere & Company." so it seems their yellow/gold is also trademarked?

[andrewharrington 4,695]

Do any of these companies have what basically amounts to their own secret Pantone® color that's not in the flip books like Tiffany?

i believe thats the case for John Deere. it seems PMS 364 will get you close to their green, but not exact. im not sure if they selected a swatch PANTONE came up with previously, then trademarked it, or if PANTONE created one specifically for them though.

i looked into the color a little and found this on their legal website page: "John Deere's green and yellow color scheme, the leaping deer symbol, and John Deere are trademarks of Deere & Company." so it seems their yellow/gold is also trademarked?

To me, what that says is, "If you want to sell lawn care equipment, it can't be green and yellow." I haven't yet found any other verified examples of companies having their own private custom colors in the PANTONE® library.

I found this interesting: If you're a company looking to, say, trademark the color of your packaging, the color can't be a natural, functional or common choice for the product you sell. So, blue, for example, can't be trademarked by a company that sells ice or water or frozen desserts, etc. Yellow or orange probably couldn't be trademarked by a company that sells tanning oils.

[DaRadniz29 89]

I understand businesses wanting to protect their image and brand, but regardless of shades and PANTONE, if you start letting companies, etc. trademark their shade, there will eventually be companies that hold trademarks on every color in the freaking rainbow.

I'm hoping there's a law of "common colors" and shades that can never be trademarked, otherwise we may run out of colors.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111118/04123516814/color-purple-trademarked-again.shtml

If there is no common color rules/laws, I should get the shades of blue and gold I like trademarked. Although if the above link is any indication my shades of blue and gold are probably already trademarked. Then again I didn't see any PANTONE (What they apparently use for determining color shades) colors exactly similar.

Though I am worried that one day somebody is going to trademark the sneeze and cough (or other bodily functions). Imagine the day you go to the grocery store, and sneeze while searching for cookies or something and a member of the Sneeze Patrol comes by and says "that will be $100 please."

Also what's stopping someone with trademarking the key turn? Every time someone turns a key to enter their house or car, they owe you $$. lol.

Yes it's ridiculous but that's what it may come to if this continues. Seriously I don't think of milk when I think of purple. I think of Royalty, Mystery, My character from my fantasy novel/fim, Sacramento and Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota Vikings, but not milk.

not to mention waiting for the day somebody tries trading marking a shade of the color black - wouldn't it really be a dark dark gray?