Mine, All Mine!
Well, as T-Mobile has decided that they own the colour magenta, and we have all known that the Royal Mail staked claim to the colour red a while ago. Cadbury’s own the colour purple, Heinz own the turquoise colour used on their cans, BP own green and Orange own, well… orange (more specifically, Pantone 151).
It’s not just colours, though. Toblerone have rights over triangular shaped boxes, and the cigar firm JR Freeman and Son have decided they own the first six bars of Air on a G String. A Tarzan-style yell has also been trademarked as the following:
The mark is a yell consisting of a series of approximately ten sounds, alternating between the chest and falsetto registers of the voice, as follows -
1) a semi-long sound in the chest register,
2) a short sound up an interval of one octave plus a fifth from the preceding sound,
3) a short sound down a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
4) a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
5) a long sound down one octave plus a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
6) a short sound up one octave from the preceding sound,
7) a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
a short sound down a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
9) a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
10) a long sound down an octave plus a fifth from the preceding sound.
So, to claim prior art, I present to you: the colour wheel!
As far as I know I edited out the colours I am aware of being registered to other people, but that may not have worked. Anyway, I can now claim prior art for any new trademark applications going through for colours.
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:56 am
Color is a powerful communication tool and thus the reason companies try to lock up a color in their industry. Wouldn’t you be in a grand position if you ‘owned’ all of those colors? Your post made me smile.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Kate Smith?! Why is ‘America’s Color Guru’ reading your blog, Rob?!
I thought it was Kate Baudains, until the American spelling gave her away!
For all I know Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan might be reading too… maybe you should consider pursuing your runaway musings full-time, all this blog needs is a PayPal Donate button! XD
April 5th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Well, I’ve claimed prior art, that’s good enough
I suppose if I started using that colour wheel as my logo, that would constitute brand identity and give me a stronger claim. Meh, we’ll see!
My access logs show a relatively low number of hits from the UAE, so somehow I doubt that
Also, as this blog costs me very little to run it doesn’t seem right putting adverts and donation buttons around the place. They just make it look cluttered and annoy people for no real reason.