Owning a color
Can you own a color? Tiffany, Owens Corning and Louboutin did, within limits. Yves Klein never did.
- Landmark US color case
- Owens Corning pink, 1985
- US Supreme Court
- Qualitex v. Jacobson, 1995
- International Klein Blue
- Recorded 1960; never patented
A company can't own a color outright, but it can sometimes own a color for one kind of product, as a trademark. Roughly, buyers must read the color as a sign of who made the thing, and the color can't do a practical job. In 1985 a US appeals court let Owens Corning protect pink for its building insulation, a landmark ruling for color trademarks. In 1995 the US Supreme Court confirmed, in a case about green-gold dry-cleaning pads, that a color alone can be a trademark.
Famous cases: Tiffany's robin's-egg blue has been a registered trademark since 1998, and Pantone, the company behind the Color of the Year, mixes it privately as 'PMS 1837', after the year Tiffany was founded. Christian Louboutin's red soles are protected in several countries, within limits set by courts. Cadbury lost a key round in 2013, when the UK Court of Appeal found its description of purple too loose; later rounds went both ways.
Useful colors can't be owned. US rulings denied protection to orange and yellow for phone booths (they're easy to see), coral for earplugs (easy to spot in safety checks) and John Deere's green for loaders, because farmers want loaders that match their tractors. If a color helps a product work or sell for reasons beyond its maker, everyone keeps it.
The most famous 'owned' color isn't owned at all. Yves Klein recorded the formula of his ultramarine paint, International Klein Blue, in a sealed, dated envelope in 1960, a French way to prove when you invented something. He never patented it. Today's fights are over materials: the artist Anish Kapoor holds exclusive art rights to a spray form of Vantablack.
Swatches
- Tiffany Blue · trademark since 1998 (approx.)
- Louboutin red sole · protected (approx.)
- Klein blue · recorded, never patented (approx.)
- Owens Corning pink · first US color mark (approx.)
Colors
Sources
- In re Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., 774 F.2d 1116 (Fed. Cir. 1985).
- Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co., 514 U.S. 159 (1995).
- Deere & Co. v. Farmhand, Inc., 560 F. Supp. 85 (S.D. Iowa 1982).
- Société des Produits Nestlé SA v Cadbury UK Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 1174; Cadbury UK Ltd v Comptroller General [2022] EWHC 1671 (Ch).
- In re Orange Communications, 41 USPQ2d 1036 (TTAB 1996); In re Howard S. Leight & Assocs., 39 USPQ2d 1058 (TTAB 1996).
- Wikipedia, 'International Klein Blue' (Soleau envelope, 1960).
Hex values are screen approximations. Every page lists its sources.