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posted by cmn32480 on Monday August 28 2017, @03:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the potty-training-targets dept.

From ArsTechnica

General Mills argued that it deserved to be awarded the trademark status because "consumers have come to identify the color yellow" on boxes of oats cereal with "the Cheerios brand." It has been marketed in yellow packaging since 1945, with billions in sales.

The board noted that "there is no doubt that a single color applied to a product or its packaging may function as a trademark and be entitled to registration under the Trademark Act." But that's only if those colors have become "inherently distinctive" in the eyes of consumers. Some of those examples include UPS "Brown;" T-Mobile "Magenta;" Target "Red;" John Deere "Green & Yellow;" and Home Depot "Orange." It goes without saying that anybody can still use those colors predominately in their marketing, but not direct competitors.

Regarding the box of Cheerios, however, the court ruled that consumers don't necessarily associate the yellow box of cereal with Cheerios, despite General Mills' assertion to the contrary. Consumers are confronted with a multitude of yellow boxes of oats cereal, the appeal board noted. By comparison, T-Mobile has only a handful of competitors, and none of them uses the magenta color as a distinctive mark, the appeal board said.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @07:54AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @07:54AM (#560093)

    > Why would I even WANT to stake a claim to a color?

    Rent seeking behavior + power + control.

    Intellectual property means anybody who uses that IP must license it from you. By owning a color, you've effectively created a scenario where suddenly people who know absolutely nothing about you and have no relationship with you whatsoever - owe you money. And if they don't pay you, you can use the courts to force it out of them. And if they don't pay you a sufficient amount, you can even force them out of business. It's literally a legalized protection racket. 'Oh.. you want to use this color? I see. Well you know, there are some people who don't want you to use it (looks with a smirk over his shoulder at the crew of lawyers he brought with him). But we can work something out. For just a small fee I can protect you from them. Otherwise I don't know. It'd be a shame if anything bad happened to this little business you've got going.'