Fire Alarm Companies: The Color Purple... Trademarked

Friday, November 11, 2011

The Color Purple... Trademarked

11:40 AM |

Posted by ProJ |

Edit Post

reader sent in this delicacy. Apparently, she went to buy knitting needles, and I found a special needle, under which was the assertion that "purple is a registered trademark of CraftsAmericana Group, Inc."

Susan wanted to know how anyone could claim a trademark on the color purple. While a quick search does not show the reference mark (not look very hard), I guess it's quite similar to many other brands of color. I tend to think that almost all the "color marks" are so stupid, but the idea is that if you use a color so that your brand is totally identified with it, then maybe you should have the right to use the mark
the specific color

this specific market

. Unfortunately, not always that way. We talked in the past the brand T-Mobile in magenta, who used to threaten a news site, and tried (but failed) to use Telia Denmark again. The problem is not that Telia and T-Mobile does not compete in the same markets ... and magenta was a different tone.

said, it seems that CraftsAmericana basic assumption here is very large. He says the company was purple in the specific markets for specific products, but implies (almost certainly wrongly) that has a complete brand honestly in "The Color Purple" and may allow others to use, even outside the market. This is the part that I find most disturbing. Only the configuration of this "warning" seems designed to scare people overuse of the color purple in a perfectly legal