At our law firm, we help people protect their trade and service marks for brands, slogans, logos and similar ways to uniquely identify the source of a particular product, good or service in the marketplace. We also represent people being accused of infringing or diluting another party’s mark.
One unique kind of mark that can only in narrow circumstances be protected is the color mark. Mental Floss explains that a trademarked color is only protected for use within the particular industry or product type in which it is uniquely used, where it has become associated strongly in the perception of the public.
Or, as the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure puts it: “[C]olor can function as a mark if it is used in the manner of a trademark or service mark and if it is perceived by the purchasing public to identify and distinguish the good or services on or in connection with which it is used and to indicate their source … If a color is not functional and is shown to have acquired distinctiveness on or in connection with the applicant’s goods or services, it is registrable as a mark.”
The Manual goes on to explain that the burden of showing that color has “acquired distinctiveness is substantial” and that “long use” in itself is not enough. For example, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board or TTAB found that the yellow on Cheerios’ boxes did not have acquired distinctiveness.
- Tiffany blue for the jeweler
- Owens-Corning pink for its insulation
- Wiffle Ball bat yellow
- UPS brown
- 3M canary yellow for Post-It note
In other trademarks related to human senses, in narrow circumstances, sound or scent can also achieve protected-mark status.