Trademarking a colour is worth the effort

Under the umbrella of intellectual property law, the 3 three most common applications are:

1. The trademark.
2. The copyright, and
3. The patent.

Corporations use the trademark to protect anything integral to their brands, such as any word, name, symbol, or device th...

In recent years, companies like T-Mobile have achieved something once thought to be legally impossible: They’ve successfully trademarked individual colours.

When a colour becomes synonymous with a brand, a company can claim a certain form of "ownership" over it.

Companies successfully trademarked combinations of colours, but the US Patent and Trademark Office dismissed attempts to trademark a single colour. 

Arguments against issuing single colour trademarks:

• Colour depletion theory: Only around 1,867 s...

In the late 1950s, Owens-Corning was facing steep competition from other fibreglass insulation companies.  Owens-Corning decided to distinguish itself by infusing its product with pink dye. The company adopted the slogan "think pink" and spent tens of millions of dollars advertising the colour.

A number of companies a have trademarked single colours. 

• In 1998, Tiffany & Co. trademarked its famous blue, and UPS trademarked its “Pullman Brown.”
•  3M secured its signature canary yellow colour for its Post-it notes.
• Deutsche Telekom AG protected T-Mobile’s famous m...