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T-Mobile demand Lemonade to stop using the color magenta

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

#131

Post by rhizome »

yellowapple wrote: post #115
burundi_coffee wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would make sense if T-Mobile actually provided good service.

Do they not? I certainly haven't had any problems with them, but I switched to them from Sprint, so my tolerance for sucktitude is a lot higher than average.

I started with TMo for ethical reasons about 10 years ago, but their SFBay coverage has been really spotty for me in general the whole time. No bars in office buildings, in the suburbs, on underground public transportation where other people appear to have active connections...just lots of inconvenient holes.

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

#132

Post by rhizome »

penagwin wrote: post #31
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.

I can't find the text of the demand, but there's a thing called "trade dress," though I'm not sure if reaches to sometihng this basic and without more design elements.

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

#133

Post by pvaldes »

mikepurvis wrote: post #92
ARandomerDude wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is it's too broad a claim. Trademarking a color is limited to (1) a specific competitive space, and (2) when it is a distinctive identifier of your brand (e.g., DeWalt's yellow and black scheme in the power tools business). T-Mobile is in the telecom business, and Lemonade is in the residential insurance business. T-Mobile should not be trying to take-down a company that is not in their competitive space…

Related to tools and colours, SparkFun got in trouble a few years ago over selling knockoff multimeters with the same colour scheme as the iconic Fluke one: https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1428

> Sparkfun: So we really only have two options, ship them back [the multimeters, to China] or have them destroyed.

I wonder if they would consider the idea of painting them in a different colour...

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

#134

Post by pcurve »

bityard wrote: post #68
TimTheTinker wrote: post #61

This is incredibly ridiculous. If a color can be owned by a trademark, what’s to prevent a particular audio frequency being trademarked, or a particular temperature, or a particular luminosity? What if my construction company trademarked “8 meters” — could I go and sue everyone who builds 8-meter-high buildings from then on? Good on Lemonade for fighting it. But something is really wrong with the world when claims li…

You sound surprised that it is possible to trademark a color. This has been part of intellectual property law for quite some time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_trade_mark I'm not saying I agree that colors should be trademarked, just that it's fairly common practice.

rather tragic over-reach I feel. I hope the law is challenged down the road.

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

#136

Post by Mountain_Skies »

im3w1l wrote: post #128
thomasz wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the late 90's, early 2000's, they aggressively tried to intimidate each and everyone using the letter T for any marketing purposes.

I was surprised Apple didn't crack down harder on non-Apple iTech. That was legitimately confusing.

Apple got away with stealing the name OS9 from Microware so they were not really a position to sue others over similar names without getting their own court testimony from the earlier trial thrown back at them.

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

#137

Post by dickeytk »

pitaj wrote: post #121
techwizrd wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article, there is overlap in their markets. To add even more color to the kerfuffle, Lemonade filed a motion yesterday with the European intellectual property office to loosen Deutsche’s legal vice-grip on the color, and has petitioned to remove DT’s color-rights on magenta in the insurance sector. The problem is, T-Mobile actually does offer insurance on services like cybersecurity and tech-gadget protectio…

Please don't quote with code blocks. It's painful to scroll horizontally, especially for mobile users. Without code blocks: > To add even more color to the kerfuffle, Lemonade filed a motion yesterday with the European intellectual property office to loosen Deutsche’s legal vice-grip on the color, and has petitioned to remove DT’s color-rights on magenta in the insurance sector. > The problem is, T-Mobile actually do…

I know HN is super minimalistic but I’d love a way to indent quotes considering how often we do it here

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

#138

Post by mikepurvis »

pvaldes wrote: post #133
mikepurvis wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related to tools and colours, SparkFun got in trouble a few years ago over selling knockoff multimeters with the same colour scheme as the iconic Fluke one: https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1428

> Sparkfun: So we really only have two options, ship them back [the multimeters, to China] or have them destroyed. I wonder if they would consider the idea of painting them in a different colour...

Given that they were destined to be sold for $15 a pop, and already assembled ready to go, I very much doubt that this would have been economically workable. Even sourcing a paint that would adhere to the plastic body of the device would be a huge headache.

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

#139

Post by fgonzag »

Someone1234 wrote: post #16
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.

They both sell insurance, so one could argue they are in the same industry. Unless we're going to sub-divide insurance between Home/Car and Phone.

That's like saying that blizzard and oracle are competitors because they are both in the software industry. If you can't substitute the product from one company with another, then they are not competitors.

In this case, if you can't buy phone insurance (the product you would buy from T-Mobile) from Lemonade, they are not competitors.

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

#140

Post by Wowfunhappy »

dickeytk wrote: post #137
pitaj wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't quote with code blocks. It's painful to scroll horizontally, especially for mobile users. Without code blocks: > To add even more color to the kerfuffle, Lemonade filed a motion yesterday with the European intellectual property office to loosen Deutsche’s legal vice-grip on the color, and has petitioned to remove DT’s color-rights on magenta in the insurance sector. > The problem is, T-Mobile actually do…

I know HN is super minimalistic but I’d love a way to indent quotes considering how often we do it here

I'm not against that but what is wrong with using a carrot? It works well.
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