| Author |
As as a color, orange could one day become the legal property of Orange |
axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Londinium
PM, WWW
|
Via: The New York Times
This is really wild. As a color, orange could one day become the legal property of Orange, the British mobile phone company, according to the The New York Times.
"Orange said yesterday evening that it would sue easyMobile, a wireless start-up founded by the entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who also founded the easyJet discount airline. Orange wants to keep easyMobile from ever using its signature color in advertisements.
The crux of the argument is that ads for Orange prominently feature its namesake color. Its shade of orange is similar to the one used by all the easyGroup brands, and to the one that easyMobile plans to use in advertisements of its own.
Suing for the rights to a color is not as unusual as it may sound, lawyers said. United Parcel Service, for example, has a trademark on the shade of brown that decks its uniforms, its logo and its trucks.
_________________
Let me Show you
WHITEHOUSE
[ This Message was edited by: axxxr on 2005-02-20 14:57 ] |
|
|
Gigs
Joined: Jan 19, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: The planet Snibertron!
PM, WWW
|
They can't exactly own "Orange" they would have to own a particular shade of it.
Yellowpages and Barbie (Matel) have the same issues. The pink shade used for all of barbies toys and accessories is now called barbie pink because that shade is copyrighted to them. I believe yellowpages tried to do the same about suing over their colour.
If I recall rightly, Matel sued Aqua over the use of Barbie Pink in their video Barbie girl (bring a direct product tie in and all that)
|
jplacson
Joined: Apr 21, 2002
Posts: > 500
From: Philippines
PM, WWW
|
Can I sue Orange for using my favorite color without my permission?? 
|
BobaFett
Joined: Jan 06, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Kamino (wish it would be Lund)
PM, WWW
|
/// Made even special keypadlight for them in t68m
This message was posted from a Z1010 |
Davo_169
Joined: Sep 06, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: perth/thredbo
PM, WWW
|
i think coke have the rights to that red color, im not too sure though
|
peeta
Joined: Apr 14, 2003
Posts: 147
From: Scotland
PM |
In a world where companies can copyright rice and beans causing people to starve a colour is small scale. |
Jake Blues
Joined: May 24, 2004
Posts: > 500
PM |
quoted from the homepage of easymobile.com :
easyMobile.com have no connection and are not associated in any way with
Orange Personal Communications Services Ltd. owned by France Telecom.
[addsig] |
Cycovision
Joined: Nov 30, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: England
PM, WWW
|
It makes a nice change to see Stelios on the recieving end for once!
It wasn't so long ago that he tried to sue a fourteen year old girl because she owned a domain name called 'easyinternet.com' or something similar and refused to hand it over to to Stelios' empire.
Thing is, she'd had a site using that domain name for quite a while, so she clearly wasn't cyber squatting and so Stelios, reluctantly, gave up the case.
What a ruthless world we live in 
_________________
'He who laughs last, laughs longest. Or didn't get the joke...'
[ This Message was edited by: Cycovision on 2005-02-21 21:32 ] |
Jools
Joined: May 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
PM |
Yeah, old Stelios seems to think he has the automatic right to any company name or internet domain name starting with the word 'easy', whether or not he already has a company with that name, or even deals in any kind of business not even remotely related to the other companies business!
Check out www.theregister.co.uk for loads of stories about the heavy-handed approach he's taken to bullying people to give up their legally bought and used domains...
He gave up with easyart.com
|
|
|
Posted: 2005-02-19 19:07
