A color trademark is a non-conventional trademark where at least one color is used to identify the brand. To qualify as a trademark, the color must be distinctive or have established a secondary meaning (to the consumer).
Many brands have sets of colors trademarked for protection against other brands in the same market. For instance, Coca-Cola has its iconic red and white scheme protected. Lots of others have single shades of color trademarked, such as Microsoft blue.
These brands try to associate themselves with their color at a fundamental level. To achieve that sort of recognition, brands have to peg their signature color to nearly everything – marketing, packaging, uniforms, store decor and more.
How strong are colors when it comes to brand recognition? See if you can recognize these brands by their color.
Click on the color to get the answer.
We’ll take a look at the other types of non – conventional trademarks in future issues of Licensing4Profits.
