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T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta

thehustle.co

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Re: T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta

#31

Post by penagwin »

asperous wrote: post #9

For some background, the reason these laws exist is to protect consumers from counterfeiters. If someone produces jewelry in a clean baby blue box, customers will start to expect that same level of quality, etc. They will be ripped off if someone else uses the same packaging but a low quality product. However many things have to be considered from the consumers perspective. Is there likely confusion? Is one of the ma…

Yeah I don't understand their reasoning here. If some cell service company started using the colors of verizon/sprint/T-mobile I could see that as confusing and potentially misleading.

But outside of their market, they should have no say on who uses that color.

Re: T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta

#32

Post by initium »

mendelk wrote: post #24

For those curious, based on the CSS on their respective websites, they aren't _exactly_ the same HEX color, just pretty similar. (Lemonade is #ff0083, while T-Mobile is #e20074. Comparison here: https://www.colorcombos.com/combotester.html?color0=e20074&c... )

Case closed :)

Re: T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta

#33

Post by Yuval_Halevi »

mendelk wrote: post #24

For those curious, based on the CSS on their respective websites, they aren't _exactly_ the same HEX color, just pretty similar. (Lemonade is #ff0083, while T-Mobile is #e20074. Comparison here: https://www.colorcombos.com/combotester.html?color0=e20074&c... )

You're from Germany by any chance?

I think that in Lemonade german site, they changed the color to a darker pink (probably until the issue with T-mobile is finished)

Re: T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta

#34

Post by ceejayoz »

soared wrote: post #29
kuschku wrote: post #2

This might seem like overreach, but is just a natural consequence of trademark laws. If you can trademark a name as simple as "apple", and if you can trademark an icon as simple as 4 squares of identical size and shape next to another (windows/microsoft), then it becomes quite obvious that colors are treated the same. In the end, trademark laws as a whole will have to be reformed, but this is just a natural consequen…

You have a gross misunderstanding of how it works. You can't trademark the entire word "apple" you can trademark the the word apple within a set of industries. You can't start a computer/isp/copy machine company called apple, but you definitely can start a woodworking shop called apple.

An example of how this gets dicey when you expand into new industries:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer

Re: T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta

#35

Post by freehunter »

jascii wrote: post #18
Yuval_Halevi wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there is a thing called colormark, But as far as I know, color marks apply to companies from the same industry. T-Mobile and Lemonade are not in the same industry therefore, Lemonade should be able to use Magenta.

According to the article, there might be a problem there as T-Mobile does offer several forms of insurance: Things like mobile device insurance and cybersecurity insurance.

And therein lies the obvious conclusion of allowing conglomerations. If one company has their foot in every possible industry, they can yield control far beyond what would normally be considered unreasonable.

I mean we are actually discussing “T-Mobile isn’t a mobile carrier, they’re an insurance company”.

Re: T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta

#36

Post by tenaciousDaniel »

asperous wrote: post #9

For some background, the reason these laws exist is to protect consumers from counterfeiters. If someone produces jewelry in a clean baby blue box, customers will start to expect that same level of quality, etc. They will be ripped off if someone else uses the same packaging but a low quality product. However many things have to be considered from the consumers perspective. Is there likely confusion? Is one of the ma…

I'm so sorry to do this, but it's "counterfeiters".

Re: T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta

#37

Post by ummonk »

rflrob wrote: post #30
soamv wrote: post #14

They're not even using the same pink! So this isn't just a usual "trademarks just work this way" thing, it's also a question of how much of the colorspace a trademark can own. The techcrunch article is a bit more informative -- https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/04/lemonade-gets-a-nastygram-...

A comment elsewhere here links to a color comparison. Looking at them, I doubt I could tell you which one is T-Mobile and which is Lemonade with confidence greater than chance.

Oh, I could immediately recognize which one was T-Mobile when I looked at the comparison. T-Mobile has a subdued magenta, whereas Lemonade uses bright hot pink. You can see the stark difference on their websites as well (though when you hover over one of the Lemonade buttons, it looks practically identical to the T-Mobile magenta).

Re: T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta

#38

Post by ryanmercer »

mendelk wrote: post #24

For those curious, based on the CSS on their respective websites, they aren't _exactly_ the same HEX color, just pretty similar. (Lemonade is #ff0083, while T-Mobile is #e20074. Comparison here: https://www.colorcombos.com/combotester.html?color0=e20074&c... )

Is this really what companies worry about? An insurance (edit: ha, I thought it was a beverage company until I read another comment) company is using a similar colour as our telecommunications company so let's get lawyers involved?

Re: T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta

#39

Post by mproud »

mendelk wrote: post #24

For those curious, based on the CSS on their respective websites, they aren't _exactly_ the same HEX color, just pretty similar. (Lemonade is #ff0083, while T-Mobile is #e20074. Comparison here: https://www.colorcombos.com/combotester.html?color0=e20074&c... )

Still pretty close.

Re: T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta

#40

Post by polymatter »

slenk wrote: post #8
code4tee wrote: post #4

Unfortunately they have to do this if they don’t want to lose the trademark. You can’t trademark something if it’s deemed to be of common use. Of course if your trademark is a color then this can be quite difficult.

I am more amazed that they issued that patent in the first place. edit - sorry, mistake, I meant trademark. I didn't know that wording mistakes were downvoted so harshly. I am amazed they can even claim a trademark over magenta, is that better?

trademarks protect customers from confusion.

copyright protects the right of an author not to have their work copied (without their permission)

patents protect inventors from having their inventions used (without their permission)

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