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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
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 28 2017, @12:08PM (4 children)
Gender is relevant. Color vision. One out of every four men is at LEAST a little bit color blind. You'll search a long time to find a woman who has any trace of color vision. It's gender linked. Obviously, you're not familiar with all of that crap - MOST men have a color deficiency in either the red or the green spectrum. Some few of us are deficient in BOTH red and green.
If you are EVER in doubt about a color, ask a woman. The chances a woman being unsure are very, very, very slim.
And, no need to thank me. I enjoy triggering people early in the morning!!
This lady's numbers are somewhat different than I learned, but I'll throw her article out there for you anyway - https://www.news-medical.net/health/Color-Blindness-Prevalence.aspx [news-medical.net]
Some more numbers, and related links from this page - http://www.colour-blindness.com/general/prevalence/ [colour-blindness.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 28 2017, @12:13PM
Ehhh, let me correct my error before someone else does.
"You'll search a long time to find a woman who has any trace of color deficiency."
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Monday August 28 2017, @12:14PM (2 children)
I am aware of colorblindness but it doesn't seem relevant to this discussion. The way I see it, a colorblind person will always see "Cheerios yellow" as the same color. It doesn't matter if to them it is some different color than what I see.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday August 28 2017, @01:07PM
Some explanation is in order, it seems. You say that this particular shade of yellow will always look the same to me - and - I can't argue that. It can't look any different, one day to the next. No, I'm not blue or yellow color blind, so that yellow should always stand out. Except, it doesn't, exactly. Lighting, decor, the colors of things in the vicinity of the Cheerios box, all have an effect on what I percieve. Put up some Christmas decorations, and that Cheerios yellow will stand out plainly. Go with Halloween decorations, and Cheerios begins to fade. Put the cereal aisle near the front or side of the store with windows, I'll see the yellow right away. In another store, with dingy flourescent lighting far from the storefront, that box looks quite different.
And, we're back to my original post, really. I can't explain my world of color to you, and I don't suppose anyone is going to explain how many colors they can readily identify to me.
This is one reason that I dislike "warm" lighting, and prefer "daylight" over any other color/temperature of lighting. I can see a lot more color in daylight, than in any other lighting. Or course, even then, I can't see much more than a fraction of reds and greens.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday August 29 2017, @01:42PM
There's more to it than just colorblindness. Look up "tetrachromacy" -- most people have three cone cells used to detect colors, but some appear to have four, which may allow them to see more color variation than the rest of us. When I read about this previously it was said that it was only possible in women, although Wikipedia does mention that some studies now show a very small fraction of men may have it as well:
http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jul-aug/06-humans-with-super-human-vision [discovermagazine.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy#Humans [wikipedia.org]