Bifalgorithm post · Property · (”Strong”

Color Standards

Color Standards (Property · (”Strong”) — "marks, with greater secondary meaning, receive broader protection than “weak” marks). We do not see why courts could…

Ideas in this flowchart

  • Trademark protection standards can be applied to color marks.
  • Marks with greater secondary meaning receive broader protection than weak marks.
  • Courts could apply those standards to a color.
  • Lighting conditions under which the colored product is normally sold may be replicated.
  • Existing decisions support applying these standards when a trademark combines color with a design.
  • Ebert discusses applying trademark protection standards to color by using numerical methods.
  • A gold stripe around a sewer pipe was treated as a color-and-design trademark.
  • A yellow strand of wire rope was treated as a color-and-design trademark.
  • A brilliant yellow band on ampules was treated as a color-and-design trademark.
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Color Standards

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Property

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"marks, with greater secondary meaning, receive broader protection than “weak” marks). We do not see why courts could not apply those standards to a color, replicating, if necessary, lighting conditions under which a colored product is normally sold. See Ebert, Trademark Protection in Color: Do It By the Numbers!, 84 T.M.Rep. 379, 405 (1994). Indeed, courts already have done so in cases where a trademark consists of a color plus a design, i.e., a colored symbol such as a gold stripe (around a sewer pipe), a yellow strand of wire rope, or a “brilliant yellow” band (on ampules). See, e.g., Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Tallman Conduit Co., 149 U.S.P.Q. 656, 657 (TTAB 1966); Amsted Industries, Inc. v. West Coast Wire Rope & Rigging Inc., 2 U.S.P.Q.2d 1755, 1760 (TTAB 1987); In re Hodes-Lange Corp., 167 U.S.P.Q. 255, 256 (TTAB 1970)."

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