MetaFilter Blue™
June 27, 2022 2:36 PM Subscribe
Most marketers are aware of the effect color has on consumer behavior. Surveys and studies have shown that: 62%-90% of a consumer’s initial judgment of a product is based on color. 52% of consumers say the color of packaging is an indicator of quality. Color increases brand recognition by up to 80%. So, if you’re thinking about making your entire brand one solid color, go ahead and try your luck. Just don’t pick magenta. from Can a corporation "own" a color?
Tiffany trademarked its famous blue in 1998 -- the same year UPS trademarked its "Pullman Brown." 3M secured its signature canary yellow color for its Post-it notes, Deutsche Telekom AG protected T-Mobile’s famous magenta, and Fiskars has one for orange scissor handles.Surprised, no mention of IBM (aka "Big Blue") or the big box stores identified by their colors I see too much of, these days: Target (red) and Home Depot (orange).
posted by Rash at 2:56 PM on June 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
First thought is Publix green.
I wore their uniform for a couple years, distinct shade among Florida businesses.
posted by FleetMind at 3:03 PM on June 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
I wore their uniform for a couple years, distinct shade among Florida businesses.
posted by FleetMind at 3:03 PM on June 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
Doesn't Pantone already own all the colors? I'd be welcome to be told I'm wrong, but....
posted by hippybear at 3:04 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 3:04 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm just waiting for them to directly own people again.
Have you heard about the 13th amendment and the office furniture assembly supply chain in prisons?
posted by hippybear at 3:05 PM on June 27, 2022 [6 favorites]
Have you heard about the 13th amendment and the office furniture assembly supply chain in prisons?
posted by hippybear at 3:05 PM on June 27, 2022 [6 favorites]
Really makes me want to break their rules on purpose.
posted by shenkerism at 3:13 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by shenkerism at 3:13 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
Many years ago I had a friend who designed some print collateral (a brochure) for Sun Microsystems. Printing their logo on it required use of the brand's solid blue ink formulation (might have just been a Pantone solid, thinking back on it, but I knew much less about color back then). He had to pick up a can of the ink from someone at Sun and deliver it to the company retained to do the actual print job. Kinda quaint when you think about it.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:17 PM on June 27, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:17 PM on June 27, 2022 [7 favorites]
The™ English language has 2 indefinite articles and 1 definite article. The™ one definite article has been trademarked by a university in Ohio, per an article from CNN
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 3:23 PM on June 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 3:23 PM on June 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
So...there can be only one The one, then?
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:25 PM on June 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 3:25 PM on June 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
There's a funny moment in S1 of Better Call Saul when Howard Hamlin, of Hamlin, Hamlin, McGill, accuses Saul/Jimmy of infringing on their trademark color, "Hamlindigo Blue"
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:31 PM on June 27, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by Saxon Kane at 3:31 PM on June 27, 2022 [7 favorites]
Hamlindigo Blue
I never knew I needed Miss Piggy to cover Miles Davis albums. But now that I have a working title, I'm all for it.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:38 PM on June 27, 2022 [22 favorites]
I never knew I needed Miss Piggy to cover Miles Davis albums. But now that I have a working title, I'm all for it.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:38 PM on June 27, 2022 [22 favorites]
"Doesn't Pantone already own all the colors? I'd be welcome to be told I'm wrong, but...."
No, Pantone created a standard system to name/number colors and also define what individual components make up those colors. There are other color systems made by competitors, and they certainly contain a shared subset of colors. Pantone may own the name "Rhodamine Red" (I have no idea if they do or don't), but they don't own the actual hue.
posted by jonathanhughes at 5:13 PM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
No, Pantone created a standard system to name/number colors and also define what individual components make up those colors. There are other color systems made by competitors, and they certainly contain a shared subset of colors. Pantone may own the name "Rhodamine Red" (I have no idea if they do or don't), but they don't own the actual hue.
posted by jonathanhughes at 5:13 PM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
Doesn't Pantone already own all the colors? I'd be welcome to be told I'm wrong, but....
No, and expanding on what jonathanhughes said, their copyrights and trademarks are for their whole color matching system, including the numbers used in their swatch system, related materials and whatever patents or IPs they have for pigment matching systems they license to providers.
There's nothing illegal, copyrighted or trademarked about picking any given color swatch from their system and mixing your own color to match it using your own color mixing system or a third party system. You can even use the swatch books to specify colors in products or graphics by name or number even if the only part of the Pantone system that you buy or use is the color swatch books or chip card books.
Which is kind of the whole point of buying expensive Pantone color books and swatch books so customers, contractors, producers and suppliers can all communicate with each other easily about color. If everyone has up to date and unexpired* Pantone swatch books you can just specify Pantone 032 U and everyone knows what you mean with relatively high precision that's good enough for most color matching work.
Any designs, prototypes, graphics or mock ups absolutely can be called out in those internal design documents as "Pantone 032 U" and you don't even actually need to buy anything from Pantone to use the system as intended like this.
If you already know what Pantone color number you want for your final product of any kind because you've seen it before or it's a known variable from previous designs as far as I know you don't even need to ask permission or own any Pantone products to call it out. They're already benefiting from the mindshare and established supremacy of being used as an color description system and someone, somewhere in the supply chain is going to have to own or buy a Pantone product to actually use it for color matching.
What you can't do is market or sell something specifically by that Pantone number or use the Pantone brand or trademarks in your own products.
IE, you're totally free to make a product that is colored red and make up whatever name you want for that red color for marketing terms and it can be a completely exact match of Pantone 032 U. You just can't market it by name as being the color "Pantone 032 U", at least not without licensing it as such with permission from Pantone.
Which, yeah, that's not exactly an exciting marketing device or language anyway to advertise that your fire truck, car or gas powered electricity generator is "Pantone 032 U" unless you happen to be a huge industrial design nerd, and even then most of us are going to find that weird and silly anyway unless we're buying one of those nerdy Pantone color chip coffee mugs.
As far as I know Pantone does not own trademarks or patents to, say, Rhodamine Red, Cobalt Blue, Burnt Sienna or any other common given or historical names for colors that were originally based on the ingredients of the pigment. They only own patents and trademarks for the indexed numbers of their specific color system as a whole.
This is all kind of ridiculous anyway because very exact precision color matching for most end uses or products as a pure pigment color or even digital colors is nearly impossible and there's usually some variations in color match within the same product run, or between different viewers screens in the case of digital colors and web/hex values.
* Yep, Pantone color swatch books expire. No, it's not a licensing or malicious updating thing. The colors pure pigment colors spot printed or coated on paper, not simulated or process colors, half tones or digital prints. Every single color in those color/swatch/chip books and resources is an individually and precisely mixed pure tone color made from physical pigments and they fade over time even with carefully limited exposure to UV light.
This is one reason why those color swatch books are so expensive and cost something like $200-300 USD just for the single basic uncoated color book. It's not the same as, say, a book printed with process/halftone or other simulated color. You can't just simulate it in Adobe Illustrator and run off a new copy off a printer.
Every single color out of the thousands of colors in those cards is an individual custom mix of pigmented print ink, and the each color of each book needs to match every other color in every other Pantone book as closely as possible so that 032 U on a designer's desk in London has to match 032 U on a plastic molding companies desk in Shenzhen, China.
If your color swatch book is left out under bright lights or worse, under sunlight coming in through a window or outdoor exposure it has a much shorter life span.
Companies, designers, printers or other producers that deal with a lot of high end color matching often have a "color room" or corner where resources like Pantone swatch/chip books are kept out of bright lights in drawers as a master metrological reference that needs to be periodically renewed.
These color swatch or chip books are then used with calibrated light sources, color viewing boxes and/or digital colorimeters to compare produced pigments or goods to the Pantone reference materials.
posted by loquacious at 6:11 PM on June 27, 2022 [50 favorites]
No, and expanding on what jonathanhughes said, their copyrights and trademarks are for their whole color matching system, including the numbers used in their swatch system, related materials and whatever patents or IPs they have for pigment matching systems they license to providers.
There's nothing illegal, copyrighted or trademarked about picking any given color swatch from their system and mixing your own color to match it using your own color mixing system or a third party system. You can even use the swatch books to specify colors in products or graphics by name or number even if the only part of the Pantone system that you buy or use is the color swatch books or chip card books.
Which is kind of the whole point of buying expensive Pantone color books and swatch books so customers, contractors, producers and suppliers can all communicate with each other easily about color. If everyone has up to date and unexpired* Pantone swatch books you can just specify Pantone 032 U and everyone knows what you mean with relatively high precision that's good enough for most color matching work.
Any designs, prototypes, graphics or mock ups absolutely can be called out in those internal design documents as "Pantone 032 U" and you don't even actually need to buy anything from Pantone to use the system as intended like this.
If you already know what Pantone color number you want for your final product of any kind because you've seen it before or it's a known variable from previous designs as far as I know you don't even need to ask permission or own any Pantone products to call it out. They're already benefiting from the mindshare and established supremacy of being used as an color description system and someone, somewhere in the supply chain is going to have to own or buy a Pantone product to actually use it for color matching.
What you can't do is market or sell something specifically by that Pantone number or use the Pantone brand or trademarks in your own products.
IE, you're totally free to make a product that is colored red and make up whatever name you want for that red color for marketing terms and it can be a completely exact match of Pantone 032 U. You just can't market it by name as being the color "Pantone 032 U", at least not without licensing it as such with permission from Pantone.
Which, yeah, that's not exactly an exciting marketing device or language anyway to advertise that your fire truck, car or gas powered electricity generator is "Pantone 032 U" unless you happen to be a huge industrial design nerd, and even then most of us are going to find that weird and silly anyway unless we're buying one of those nerdy Pantone color chip coffee mugs.
As far as I know Pantone does not own trademarks or patents to, say, Rhodamine Red, Cobalt Blue, Burnt Sienna or any other common given or historical names for colors that were originally based on the ingredients of the pigment. They only own patents and trademarks for the indexed numbers of their specific color system as a whole.
This is all kind of ridiculous anyway because very exact precision color matching for most end uses or products as a pure pigment color or even digital colors is nearly impossible and there's usually some variations in color match within the same product run, or between different viewers screens in the case of digital colors and web/hex values.
* Yep, Pantone color swatch books expire. No, it's not a licensing or malicious updating thing. The colors pure pigment colors spot printed or coated on paper, not simulated or process colors, half tones or digital prints. Every single color in those color/swatch/chip books and resources is an individually and precisely mixed pure tone color made from physical pigments and they fade over time even with carefully limited exposure to UV light.
This is one reason why those color swatch books are so expensive and cost something like $200-300 USD just for the single basic uncoated color book. It's not the same as, say, a book printed with process/halftone or other simulated color. You can't just simulate it in Adobe Illustrator and run off a new copy off a printer.
Every single color out of the thousands of colors in those cards is an individual custom mix of pigmented print ink, and the each color of each book needs to match every other color in every other Pantone book as closely as possible so that 032 U on a designer's desk in London has to match 032 U on a plastic molding companies desk in Shenzhen, China.
If your color swatch book is left out under bright lights or worse, under sunlight coming in through a window or outdoor exposure it has a much shorter life span.
Companies, designers, printers or other producers that deal with a lot of high end color matching often have a "color room" or corner where resources like Pantone swatch/chip books are kept out of bright lights in drawers as a master metrological reference that needs to be periodically renewed.
These color swatch or chip books are then used with calibrated light sources, color viewing boxes and/or digital colorimeters to compare produced pigments or goods to the Pantone reference materials.
posted by loquacious at 6:11 PM on June 27, 2022 [50 favorites]
Let's not forget about Klein Blue (which he filed for but did not enforce copyright on), Kapoor Black (which is a licensing issue on a technical innovation), or Semple Pink (which is basically a huge fuck you to Kapoor).
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:16 PM on June 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:16 PM on June 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
SparkFun is forced to incinerate 2,000 multimeters because they are yellow. Yes, Fluke were enforcing their rights.
posted by scruss at 6:55 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by scruss at 6:55 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
Semple Pink (which is basically a huge fuck you to Kapoor).
Anyone who’s ever spent a single moment in the company of that narcissistic shit-weasel knows that The Pinkest Pink is a perfectly proportionate fuck you.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 7:01 PM on June 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
Anyone who’s ever spent a single moment in the company of that narcissistic shit-weasel knows that The Pinkest Pink is a perfectly proportionate fuck you.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 7:01 PM on June 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
Wait my 1980ish Fluke multimeter is grey. When did the yellow show up?
And what do DeWalt, Caterpillar, General Mills, and lemons have to say about this?
posted by skyscraper at 7:23 PM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
And what do DeWalt, Caterpillar, General Mills, and lemons have to say about this?
posted by skyscraper at 7:23 PM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
In the 21st century, capitalism's main innovations have been in marketing, regulatory capture, and finding new ways to legally lie.
We used to make things in this country.
posted by AlSweigart at 7:31 PM on June 27, 2022 [11 favorites]
We used to make things in this country.
posted by AlSweigart at 7:31 PM on June 27, 2022 [11 favorites]
Yes, building on what loquacious wrote above: I owned a Pantone Coated Process (CMYK) swatch book (which, BTW, I kept in the box it arrived in and only took out when working on a print project) and knew I could punch the CMYK values printed under the swatches I selected into Photoshop (ignoring entirely what it looked like on my screen) and be confident that it would come out more or less exactly as it looked on the swatch (i.e. a relatively low value of delta E) when I sent it off to the printers.
Also: don't confuse Pantone Process Colors (which are achieved by printing specific percentages of CMYK inks on top of each other) with Pantone Solids (AKA spot colors) which are based on pigment formulas that printers mix to order when specified by the designer/customer. These are not intended to blend or mix with each other (or process inks) but rather to be used by themselves. The colors printed on most product packaging (e.g. a bag of potato chips) is a combination CMYK process colors and a number of (often proprietary & brand specific) solids.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 7:32 PM on June 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
Also: don't confuse Pantone Process Colors (which are achieved by printing specific percentages of CMYK inks on top of each other) with Pantone Solids (AKA spot colors) which are based on pigment formulas that printers mix to order when specified by the designer/customer. These are not intended to blend or mix with each other (or process inks) but rather to be used by themselves. The colors printed on most product packaging (e.g. a bag of potato chips) is a combination CMYK process colors and a number of (often proprietary & brand specific) solids.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 7:32 PM on June 27, 2022 [3 favorites]
And what do DeWalt, Caterpillar, General Mills, and lemons have to say about this?
I guess, nothing, so long as Fluke doesn't start making power tools, excavators, or b'fast cereals and they don't go into the digital multimeter business.
(And lemons don't have much to say about anything.)
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 7:38 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
I guess, nothing, so long as Fluke doesn't start making power tools, excavators, or b'fast cereals and they don't go into the digital multimeter business.
(And lemons don't have much to say about anything.)
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 7:38 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
I guess my point was to focus attention a company that transitioned from not being identified with a color (Fluke, awesome instrumentation in the 70s and early 80s when I cared about such things, very boring grey stuff) to having a yellow that theirs, dammit.
I get that it’s hard to differentiate yourself from inferior imitators, but his all seems like a very blunt instrument that hammers down innovation. But of course there are assholes that are going to use their “innovator” badges to use that argument to their advantage and leech off a successful large company.
If only the world was moderated by MeFites…
posted by skyscraper at 8:01 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
I get that it’s hard to differentiate yourself from inferior imitators, but his all seems like a very blunt instrument that hammers down innovation. But of course there are assholes that are going to use their “innovator” badges to use that argument to their advantage and leech off a successful large company.
If only the world was moderated by MeFites…
posted by skyscraper at 8:01 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
Yeah, but when it comes to yellow... like Caterpillar is competing with DeWalt? The whole space in which trademark/salesmark works is something I don't entirely understand.
I mean, Craftsman had yellow, too. (Are they still around? Do they sill have their warranty?)
posted by hippybear at 8:08 PM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
I mean, Craftsman had yellow, too. (Are they still around? Do they sill have their warranty?)
posted by hippybear at 8:08 PM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
This really gets into what I think's called 'trade dress.' My limited understanding is that it can be very hard to enforce but sounds like in the case of Fluke v. SparkFun, the guy w/ the bigger lawyers won. I'm not agreeing it was right (and SparkFun's response was really very even tempered even though I'm tempted to say they might have known better in the first place) but that's how this one went down.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 8:09 PM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 8:09 PM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
The one that came instantly to mind for me was Barbie Pink
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 8:12 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by HypotheticalWoman at 8:12 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
I’ve got a close eye on the Craftsman #2 Phillips screwdriver that I bought in 1968. It’s looking a bit worn and if the local Sears hadn’t been converted to Starbucks headquarters, I’d take it in to have it looked at.
posted by skyscraper at 8:13 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by skyscraper at 8:13 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]
Craftsman gets returned to Lowe’s now; they’ll replace your screwdriver with the current equivalent.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 8:18 PM on June 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 8:18 PM on June 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
If I had a terminal case of lawyer brain, I get it: the nonfunctional use of color is a way to distinguish your product from competing products, so it falls under trademark law.
But I have a normal human brain, so I can step back and see that allowing the trademark of a color is simply another means for large companies to use the legal system to bully smaller companies.
Jeez, you don't need a Harvard law degree to see that the real world result is just anti-competitive legal abuse. Or, in the case of the Barbie company suing the "I'm A Barbie Girl" record company for using pink letters on an album cover, simply abuse. And seeing how trademarks are indefinite, it might not be a good idea to give corporations a claim on a color until the end of time itself. I'm not a fancy big-city lawyer, or any lawyer at all, but it seems to me that unless trademarking a color is open to all businesses that can pay the $525 filing fee, this is yet another giveaway to the wealthy.
Or perhaps we've just normalized the idea that competition in capitalism is a lie and we should only expect two or three companies to dominate every given industry. Cause otherwise I don't think Mr. Roy G. Biv has enough colors to go around (he's cutting it close already with indigo. Make up your mind and put it with purple or blue, Roy.)
I'm sure the lawyers will say, "But then companies could cause confusion when some other company dyes their insulation pink" and I say FINE. LET THEM. I GUESS THEY'LL HAVE TO COME UP WITH SOME OTHER WAY TO DISTINGUISH THEIR BRAND OTHER THAN LAYING CLAIM TO AN ENTIRE COLOR UNTIL THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE. Let's see this capitalist innovation I keep hearing about.
Laws aren't real. We make them up. Lawyers don't uncover some fundamental truth of the universe which forces them to say "color goes into the trademark category". You can just come up with some new term like "marginally reasonable" or "enemy combatant" or some other nonsense combination of words; lawyers and politicians do it all the time. If the rule has lead us to this absurdity, of what use is the rule?
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to file the paperwork for my trademarks on squares, the number 0, the texture of wood, the Blue Steel facial expression, and the faint but nostalgic odor of a distant happy childhood.
posted by AlSweigart at 8:27 PM on June 27, 2022 [22 favorites]
But I have a normal human brain, so I can step back and see that allowing the trademark of a color is simply another means for large companies to use the legal system to bully smaller companies.
Jeez, you don't need a Harvard law degree to see that the real world result is just anti-competitive legal abuse. Or, in the case of the Barbie company suing the "I'm A Barbie Girl" record company for using pink letters on an album cover, simply abuse. And seeing how trademarks are indefinite, it might not be a good idea to give corporations a claim on a color until the end of time itself. I'm not a fancy big-city lawyer, or any lawyer at all, but it seems to me that unless trademarking a color is open to all businesses that can pay the $525 filing fee, this is yet another giveaway to the wealthy.
Or perhaps we've just normalized the idea that competition in capitalism is a lie and we should only expect two or three companies to dominate every given industry. Cause otherwise I don't think Mr. Roy G. Biv has enough colors to go around (he's cutting it close already with indigo. Make up your mind and put it with purple or blue, Roy.)
I'm sure the lawyers will say, "But then companies could cause confusion when some other company dyes their insulation pink" and I say FINE. LET THEM. I GUESS THEY'LL HAVE TO COME UP WITH SOME OTHER WAY TO DISTINGUISH THEIR BRAND OTHER THAN LAYING CLAIM TO AN ENTIRE COLOR UNTIL THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE. Let's see this capitalist innovation I keep hearing about.
Laws aren't real. We make them up. Lawyers don't uncover some fundamental truth of the universe which forces them to say "color goes into the trademark category". You can just come up with some new term like "marginally reasonable" or "enemy combatant" or some other nonsense combination of words; lawyers and politicians do it all the time. If the rule has lead us to this absurdity, of what use is the rule?
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to file the paperwork for my trademarks on squares, the number 0, the texture of wood, the Blue Steel facial expression, and the faint but nostalgic odor of a distant happy childhood.
posted by AlSweigart at 8:27 PM on June 27, 2022 [22 favorites]
Years ago Cabinet magazine had an article about the trademarked color orange the Golden Gate bridge is painted, and how it's virtually impossible to reproduce it exactly in print photos.
posted by SystematicAbuse at 8:30 PM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by SystematicAbuse at 8:30 PM on June 27, 2022 [1 favorite]
Which reminds me, I absolutely love having to choose a product's color when the list includes things such as "sandalwood" and "bone"
posted by SystematicAbuse at 8:33 PM on June 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by SystematicAbuse at 8:33 PM on June 27, 2022 [4 favorites]
Political and social movements certainly ‘own’ colours, the colours perhaps even own them. Everywhere where there’s a sensible political system, red is understood as the colour of the political left, of trade unionism, and of collectivism, and blue the colour of the political right, of the establishment, and conservatism.
Everywhere in the world with a sensible system. You heard me.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 11:35 PM on June 27, 2022 [7 favorites]
Everywhere in the world with a sensible system. You heard me.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 11:35 PM on June 27, 2022 [7 favorites]
"3. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5. Unfortunately, God had also separated the light into a number of trademarked colours, so had to scrunch the whole universe up and start again. 6. "That trick never works", said the adversary. "This time for sure!", said God."
posted by nfalkner at 11:44 PM on June 27, 2022 [9 favorites]
posted by nfalkner at 11:44 PM on June 27, 2022 [9 favorites]
IE, you're totally free to make a product that is colored red and make up whatever name you want for that red color for marketing terms and it can be a completely exact match of Pantone 032 U. You just can't market it by name as being the color "Pantone 032 U", at least not without licensing it as such with permission from Pantone.
Pantone (and RAL) color swatch books should come with a warning on all of their magenta-ish colors:
Magenta*
*USE WITH CAUTION, OWNED BY TELEKOM.
To get sued and lose against Telekom [link in German], your usage doesn't need to be the specific Pantone color; nor does it have to be a Pantone color (the M in CMYK suffices); nor do you need to be in the classic telecommunications industry (sell insurance online? Not with magenta); nor do you even need to use ink at all (magenta on a website suffices); nor does it have to be magenta (a dark pink suffices) ...
The execs must have been laughing their asses off when they got away with this.
posted by UN at 12:05 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Pantone (and RAL) color swatch books should come with a warning on all of their magenta-ish colors:
Magenta*
*USE WITH CAUTION, OWNED BY TELEKOM.
To get sued and lose against Telekom [link in German], your usage doesn't need to be the specific Pantone color; nor does it have to be a Pantone color (the M in CMYK suffices); nor do you need to be in the classic telecommunications industry (sell insurance online? Not with magenta); nor do you even need to use ink at all (magenta on a website suffices); nor does it have to be magenta (a dark pink suffices) ...
The execs must have been laughing their asses off when they got away with this.
posted by UN at 12:05 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
[link in German]
With what I assume is a GDPR agreement overlay, except the button is magenta/pink. Nice try, Telekom!
posted by zamboni at 4:58 AM on June 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
With what I assume is a GDPR agreement overlay, except the button is magenta/pink. Nice try, Telekom!
posted by zamboni at 4:58 AM on June 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
Everywhere in the world with a sensible system. You heard me.
We have those colours in the UK, and we decidedly do not have a sensible system.
posted by Dysk at 5:07 AM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
We have those colours in the UK, and we decidedly do not have a sensible system.
posted by Dysk at 5:07 AM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Which reminds me, I absolutely love having to choose a product's color when the list includes things such as "sandalwood" and "bone"
That’s bone. The lettering is something called Sillian Rail.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:09 AM on June 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
That’s bone. The lettering is something called Sillian Rail.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:09 AM on June 28, 2022 [5 favorites]
If we had the sensible system we'd have to listen to conservatives saying it proves Democrats are Communists. Nobody needed that.
posted by InfidelZombie at 6:44 AM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by InfidelZombie at 6:44 AM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
Ferrari red
Mclaren orange
Two that come to mind.
And speaking of Ferrari red ...
posted by philip-random at 7:23 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
Mclaren orange
Two that come to mind.
And speaking of Ferrari red ...
posted by philip-random at 7:23 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
From the second Ferrari link: "Ferrari's rules dictate that an owner cannot sell their car in the first year and that they inform the manufacturer before selling thereafter”…?!
posted by gottabefunky at 8:26 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by gottabefunky at 8:26 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
(And lemons don't have much to say about anything.)
They do if you cut a little mouth into them.
Also I'd love to see a color tone battle between CVS and WalGreens.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:49 AM on June 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
They do if you cut a little mouth into them.
Also I'd love to see a color tone battle between CVS and WalGreens.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:49 AM on June 28, 2022 [3 favorites]
I’m not necessarily on board with companies trademarking colors, but I admit it is convenient to be able to tell Mrs. gelfin, “I don’t mind pink shirts, as long as they’re not T-Mobile pink.”
posted by gelfin at 9:51 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by gelfin at 9:51 AM on June 28, 2022 [1 favorite]
I never knew I needed Miss Piggy to cover Miles Davis albums.
As you wish.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:10 PM on June 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
As you wish.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:10 PM on June 28, 2022 [4 favorites]
I hereby claim the color blue on this page. If you are viewing this page, you owe me.
posted by Oh_Bobloblaw at 2:37 PM on June 28, 2022
posted by Oh_Bobloblaw at 2:37 PM on June 28, 2022
Years ago Cabinet magazine had an article about the trademarked color orange the Golden Gate bridge is painted, and how it's virtually impossible to reproduce it exactly in print photos.
Even the bridge isn't actually that colour. What with the effects of weathering and pollution and how it takes them a year to paint the bridge1 areas vary in colour. Then the effect of light colours makes it so few if any of the photos are Pantone accurate representations of the nominal colour.
[1] Not really but close enough for my point.
posted by Mitheral at 7:16 PM on June 28, 2022
Even the bridge isn't actually that colour. What with the effects of weathering and pollution and how it takes them a year to paint the bridge1 areas vary in colour. Then the effect of light colours makes it so few if any of the photos are Pantone accurate representations of the nominal colour.
[1] Not really but close enough for my point.
posted by Mitheral at 7:16 PM on June 28, 2022
My Golden Gate Color story: the first time I visited SF was for a conference in San Jose, and I had very little time to look around. I walked from downtown towards the ferry terminal, looked at the enormous suspension bridge, and was crushed. A dull grey! Of course, bridges need maintenance and repainting, but just my luck, I thought, it had to be while I was visiting.
I’m not sure how many people I griped to about this, but no one corrected me.
Next time I visited, I was able to see both the Golden Gate and Oakland bridges, and I don’t think the embarrassment has ever entirely left mean.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:23 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
I’m not sure how many people I griped to about this, but no one corrected me.
Next time I visited, I was able to see both the Golden Gate and Oakland bridges, and I don’t think the embarrassment has ever entirely left mean.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:23 PM on June 28, 2022 [2 favorites]
I work in telecom, and I have on occasion seen graphs that represent AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint in blue, red, magenta, and yellow respectively. If you're going to use colors, it makes sense to use the colors people expect.
posted by madcaptenor at 6:55 AM on June 29, 2022
posted by madcaptenor at 6:55 AM on June 29, 2022
They do if you cut a little mouth into them.
This comment isn't getting enough love. This is Best of Metafilter-level stuff.
posted by kevinbelt at 10:11 AM on June 29, 2022
This comment isn't getting enough love. This is Best of Metafilter-level stuff.
posted by kevinbelt at 10:11 AM on June 29, 2022
« Older Online Transgender Archives | Everything happens so much Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 2:39 PM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]