Ridiculous Trademarks granted

Grab All Association

I hope it's ok to post this here, just a general query on something I've seen today

I was watching TV and this statement on a Uncle Ben's advert earlier

"The color [sic] Orange is a Trademark of Mars © 2016 Mars or affiliates"

How the hell do you trademark a colour? I assume this was granted in the USA.

If protected here then does this only apply to competitors selling rice or if someone sets up a hairdressers in Dublin and accidentally uses that shade of orange in branding?

endacl

Awaiting the inevitable class action ‘Uncle Ben’s v Irish Teenage Girls in Cheapo Tan’ case...

prinzeugen

Grab All Association wrote: »

I hope it's ok to post this here, just a general query on something I've seen today

I was watching TV and this statement on a Uncle Ben's advert earlier

"The color [sic] Orange is a Trademark of Mars © 2016 Mars or affiliates"

How the hell do you trademark a colour? I assume this was granted in the USA.

If protected here then does this only apply to competitors selling rice or if someone sets up a hairdressers in Dublin and accidentally uses that shade of orange in branding?

It may be about parasitic trading. I remember a case from the 80s when a haircare brand sued ASDA for big ££ as they used almost identical green packaging.

Tesco are at it with their own brand male deodorant. Very, very similar to Lynx but maybe different enough to get away with it.

Some colours/patterns can be trademarked though. In the model train world, Hornby for example, must get a licence to recreate a train in toy form. The shade of blue that was used by GNER was made for GNER and is known as "Sherwood blue" after the owner.

If you want to paint anything Sherwood Blue you need permission.

Simon Kohler of Hornby had a good, but sadly now deleted blog about his decades in Hornby making model trains. They had to jump through hoops just to get a £5 coal wagon in the shops. Most of the problems came from licensing and trademarks.

Buckingham palace got involved at one point as they over stepped the mark!

Virgin Red is another "trademarked" colour. A model company allegedly had its licence to make Virgin models overturned as the model company has made a balls of the colour on other models. If the red is not right, Virgin feels it could damage the brand.

Samuel T. Cogley

You can't trademark a colour IIRC. You can do so by specifying the colourcode in specific circumstances but 'Orange' would not be specific enough.

Or is it just you can't register it - I've managed to block out most of the IP law I did in college like the traumatic event that it was.

harr

I don’t understand how the likes ALDI and Lidi get away with some the packaging they use .. some products are almost identical to big brand products.
For example Aldi’s fajitas kits and the ol El Paso ones

Samuel T. Cogley

harr wrote: »

I don’t understand how the likes ALDI and Lidi get away with some the packaging they use .. some products are almost identical to big brand products.
For example Aldi’s fajitas kits and the ol El Paso ones

Sometimes they're made by the same companies, sometimes they're just not willing to fall out with the possible reseller.

I just like it that the test here is/was 'the moron in a hurry'.

MrFresh

harr wrote: »

I don’t understand how the likes ALDI and Lidi get away with some the packaging they use .. some products are almost identical to big brand products.
For example Aldi’s fajitas kits and the ol El Paso ones

They've had to remove a number of products because of it.

Eric Cartman

they can trademark to a specific degree, obviously a tv ad isnt going to print the whole thing, but you'll likely find that selling boxed rice and food sauces with that pantone shade orange and possibly a stipulation about blue text etc... would violate their trademark,

if they were very very lucky it might be selling rice in an orange box but its not that they own the whole colour orange.

ted1

harr wrote: »

I don’t understand how the likes ALDI and Lidi get away with some the packaging they use .. some products are almost identical to big brand products.
For example Aldi’s fajitas kits and the ol El Paso ones

A similar case here

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/bread-companies-settle-dispute-over-packaging-1.1811632%3fmode=amp

Seth Brundle

FYI...
https://www.internationallawoffice.com/Newsletters/Intellectual-Property/United-Arab-Emirates/Al-Tamimi-Company/UNCLE-BENS-Orange-Becomes-First-UAE-Single-Colour-Mark