UPS says it has a copyright on the color brown.

[dixiegrrrrl]

Here is the UPS notice I just got ( about an incoming shipment):

UPS, the UPS brandmark, and the color brown are trademarks of United Parcel Service of America, Inc.

does that mean all brown eyed people are owned by UPS??????

[yourout]

1. My underwear begs to differ.

[sendero]

56. Now THAT's funny...

.. I don't care who you are

[merrily]

2. Maybe they are claiming it as a trademark for mail delivery.

I can't swear to it, but I think some company trademarked pink as a color of insulation for homes and maybe other buildings as well.

[Atman]

6. Shh...stop making sense.

A trademark pertains to businesses where competition might be confused. No one is going to sue a landscaping company because they use brown in their logo. This OP is pure ignorance. The USPS has actually trademarked red white and blue. Not that you can't make flags, but so another company called UPS can't use the same color scheme to confuse customers.

The trademark law doesn't pertain to 'the color brown'. It pertains to other shipping companies trying to capitalize on UPS's market status by copying their color scheme.

[merrily]

15. I am not 100% convinced that trademarks should be granted in colors, even for limited

purposes, or that certain patents should be granted, but those are much bigger issues than the bitty one I stuck my toe into, so I will tiptoe out without attempting discussion.

(See what you get for accusing me of making sense? )

[jberryhill]

20. Owens Corning pink fiberglass insulation is a good example

If it is pink fiberglass insulation, then you know it is Owens Corning. The pink serves no utilitarian purpose. It is only there to distinguish their product.

They put a ton of money into those Pink Panther commercials and the "Think Pink" slogan to make sure that they were distinguishable from other brands of fiberglass insulation by that shade of pink.

The brown does set UPS apart from Fedex (orange and purple) and USPS (red white and blue).

The original "trade marks" were just symbols that were put onto casks and crates shipped along canal and river barges. The longshoremen could make sure that the right goods went to the right warehouses, and the shippers could have confidence that would happen. These were often very simple marks - the oldest still around is the red triangle on Bass Ale. Do they own red triangles? No. But as a mark on ale, its been them for a long, long time.

[merrily]

30. Pink fiberglass is the very example I gave in Reply 2.

[Atman]

21. But I actually agreed with you, although not entirely.

Many generic brands will MIMIC the color schemes of established brands. But they're usually clearly generic, and no brand confusion is established. For instance, if you were making a generic chocolate milk powder, would you not use brown as a predominate color? No one is saying you're trying to fool a customer...you have Nestle's Quik taking up seven selves, and you have Store Brand taking up two rows. With store logo on it. No one is going to be "fooled" that they thought they were buying Quik but wound up with store brand.

Not the same with national, established brand identities which took years, decades, generations to build. In fact, Nestle probably makes the chocolate powder for the store brand, so they're still making millions.

But if I were to start up a shipping company tomorrow using all brown vans, using the same brown, with the same yellow logo, don't you see how customers could be ripped off by trucks pulling into their driveway and picking up packages they never intended to be sent via my new upstart company?

I don't think this is exactly rocket science. It's consumer protection.

[merrily]

34. Same brown with the same yellow logo is very different from just brown.

And protecting the poor consumer is not usually as much of an issue for the company as protecting itself. But, I am going to stand on tiptoeing out of discussing the larger issues.

[NutmegYankee]

35. It makes sense in many cases.

For instance, FRAM trademarks the color orange for it's oil filters. And that makes sense because we always associate an orange filter as a FRAM filter.

[jberryhill]

47. That is a good one

I still can't figure out how McDonalds and Inn N Out have the same red and yellow motif. One of them had to be first.

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. Actually, my OP is pure tongue in cheek, which most people seem to have figured out...

Stay true to yourself, by all means.

[sendero]

59. You are correct...

... trademarks apply only when their is some reasonable basis for confusion of vendors. I can launch a brown balloon company with no issues, but if I want to get in the delivery biz I would have to choose another color.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. I think Oprah grabbed the colour purple.

Better trademark your own colour quickly.

[dixiegrrrrl]

24. Damn..and my favorite color, too.

Royal purple, that is.

[Faryn Balyncd]

4. That's clearly what the founders intended when they wrote Art 1, Sect 8: "To promote the Progress...

"...To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."


And ever since UPS discovered brown, we owe them!!!! (Moreover, we better extend their ownership under the TPP if we want to continue the Progress of Science!!!)

Why, without UPS's discovery, what color would Hershey's Kisses be? And our feces would be . . . . green??!

[jberryhill]

22. Trademarks have nothing to do with that clause

First, UPS is claiming a trademark in that shade of brown FOR parcel delivery services. I think they are the only one that uses that shade of brown, so I don't see the problem.

Second, trademark rules arise under the Commerce Clause, not the patent & copyright clause. It wasn't until the late 1800s that there even was any federal trademark act, and it didn't become a big deal until after the 1930's (for obscure legal reasons relating to a guy who got hit by something sticking out of a train and sued over it).

[merrily]

36. Trademarks did not arise under the commerce clause. They existed long, long before the

Constitution. However, the commerce clause may be the source of power that the federal government claims power to regulate trademarks, as opposed to leaving that to the state statutes and state courts.

[jberryhill]

46. The difficulty is...

That after Erie v Tompkins, federal courts couldn't rely on a "federal common law" of trademarks. That was one of the drivers of the Lanham Act.

That's why I mentioned a guy being hit with something sticking out of a train.

[merrily]

54. No, none of that affects anything in my Reply 36.

[jberryhill]

55. You might find this a good read

http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1122&context=iplj

[merrily]

57. Thank you, but that also does not affect the accuracy of my Reply 36.

[jberryhill]

58. Lol, you read fast

[merrily]

60. Reading it was not necessary to know it does not affect my Reply 36.

You claimed trademarks arose under the commerce clause.

Here is the text of my Reply 36 to that:

Trademarks did not arise under the commerce clause. They existed long, long before the Constitution. However, the commerce clause may be the source of power that the federal government claims power to regulate trademarks, as opposed to leaving that to the state statutes and state courts.

Obviously, the Lanham Act does not alter anything said in my Reply 36. Neither does the existence (or not) of federal common law. Trademarks did not arise under the commerce clause but were known centuries ago. They arose because people did business. Your earlier post was a misstatement. It's that simple.

[PoliticAverse]

5. It's a trademark, not copyright. So if you start another delivery company don't use Brown.

Other companies also have trademarks on certain colors for certain product categories.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. So, do other delivery companies have to filter their ads (including TV)?

[jberryhill]

26. No

You know how FedEx uses orange and purple.

And how USPS uses red, white and blue.

And how DHL uses, I think, some shade of yellow or red?

Okay.

UPS - its the brown one.

[pnwmom]

10. So what happens if multiple delivery companies run out of colors?

[jberryhill]

29. Then there would be a "commercial necessity" argument

But, we aren't anywhere near that point.

[dixiegrrrrl]

41. Not to worry..see # 33 comment, below.

We are saved!

[Faryn Balyncd]

12. How about employing brown delivery people?

[RobinA]

61. My Fed Ex Man

is quite brown. Very nice guy. My UPS man is quite white, and has been around forever. He's nice too, although a bit manic at times. Both very conscientious.

[KamaAina]

7. Have the Seattle Seahawks trademarked blue?

[jmowreader]

49. No

[KamaAina]

50. Well, they must be feeling blue after Sunday

[jmowreader]

52. I'm starting to wonder...

It was second-and-one on that play and they had one time out. Could Coach Carroll have been thinking...

on 2nd Down we'll run a short pass. Russell should be able to hit that easily. If he doesn't...
on 3rd Down we'll have Russell rush it in. If that doesn't work...
on 4th Down we'll call time out, turn our safeties and defensive tackles into offensive linemen, and get the ball to Marshawn Lynch.

All of which went out the window after Butler fucked it all up.

Since Coach Carroll is so good at molding young and inexpensive players into a great team, if Seattle loses a lot of guys after this season - not REAL likely, but possible - they'll be back in the Super Bowl within two years.

[KamaAina]

9. So which chickenhawk has trademarked yellow?

[KamaAina]

11. Ted Nugent begs to differ.

[Iggo]

13. This Sick Beat.

[jberryhill]

48. That actually doesn't function as a mark

Beverly Hills trademark lawyers sell their clients on the dumbest notions.

[onenote]

16. You might think about correcting your OP

since UPS has a trademark, not copyright, on the use of the color brown in identifying a delivery service.

For those that are interested in understanding how this works, here:
http://www.quora.com/How-did-UPS-trademark-the-color-brown

[Atman]

17. So let's say that you had a tractor company named "John Deere"...

And some upstart came up with "John Deer" tractor company using the exact same colors. You don't see a problem with that?

As other poster said, it's a trademark. You can't copyright a color or an idea or a word, or even a few words grouped together (surprise, CC!). But you can TRADEMARK a unique grouping in order to protect your brand identity. Again, a trademark is not a copyright.

[madinmaryland]

18. So everytime I take a shit, I will have to pay them a royalty????

[dixiegrrrrl]

27. Shhhh...don't tell them....n/t

[jberryhill]

28. Are you offering 2 day delivery of it to anywhere in the US?

[daredtowork]

19. There were industrial color wars in the late 19th c.

Aftr Perkin invented mauve, and ithis color became a fashion sensation, companies engaged in vigorous patent wars over colors for clothing dyes, paint pigments , etc. Now that I think about iy, this was sort of a mini preview of the vicious Silicon Valley patent wars today. re:companies defensively patent what they will never use, buy patents of competing products, get passive revenue streams just by having a patent someone else needs , etc.

Sorry for lack of links, I'm on wifi. Google Perkin Aniline Mauve for more detail. You will get the secret origins of the modern world!

[agent46]

25. UPS Brown may be trademarked

UPS Brown may be trademarked the same way Reese's Orange and Hershey's Brown are unique copyrighted colors - only seen on trademarked product packaging.

[Warpy]

32. Dunno, I've just recently flushed some UPS brown down the hopper

I hope they don't find out about my desecration of their trademark.

[lpbk2713]

31. OK ... I claim green.

Now let's see. How much does the US Treasury owe me for copyright infringement?

[kentauros]

33. Crosley Bendix better trademark Squant soon then!

[font color="deeppink"][font size="5"]Squant[/font][/font]

Squant by Crosley Bendix,
Director Of Stylistic Premonitions, U.M.N.

Good hello, and welcome to the most eye-popping development in the history of vision. This revolutionary innovation in sight is going to make sound simply trivial by comparison, so I'm especially appreciative that the sound obsessed members of Negativland are generously allowing me to introduce it to you on their audio oriented website. If you read the papers, you have probably already heard about the discovery of Squant, but until now details have been sketchy. Many citizens continue to ask me, "Hey, what is this Squant thng anyway?" Well, it's the biggest art related crossover story I've ever confronted in all my years of interpreting aesthetic ambiguities for our relatively unschooled public. No doubt about it, the impact of this will dent many aspects of life outside the arts, if there are any.

Let's start at the beginning. Some time ago, the Optical Institute and Shade Company of Mindinaw announced the discovery of a new primary color. For those who never had any interest in colors and never took the time to study a color wheel, perhaps some background should be sketched out here in order to properly frame the subject. A standard color wheel depicts a hierarchical breakdown of all the hues in the universe as we know it, or as we knew it. A color wheel is divided into what are called primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Up to this point in time there have been only three primary colors, red, blue, and yellow, the basic building blocks of every rainbow. All other hues are made from combinations of these primaries. The secondary color green is formed from a mix of the primaries blue and yellow, for example. Violet from red and blue, and so on.

But now, a fourth, never-before seen primary color has been discovered. This color has already been named by its discoverer, Dr. Wohan Squant. With a distinctly questionable view of posterity, he has named the fourth primary color "squant," and that has become the very first controversy to taint this shocking discovery. Several international appeals were immediately filed by some of the world's leading authorities on color, disputing the right of Dr. Squant to name this new color after himself. They pleaded for a different naming procedure. However, it turns out that the Divine Spectrum Institute in Naples, the world's supreme arbiter in all questions of color, has ruled that since no new primary color has ever been discovered before in all of human history, there was no precedent for naming procedures, and therefore Dr. Squant was free to establish that precedent. That, of course, means that any future primary color discoveries will probably bear the name of their discoverers.

Now, a little more about the color squant itself. I must admit I have not actually seen the color, in color, myself. So far, there have been only black and white photos of the color in the Mindinaw newspapers which, unfortunately, are not quite up to the standards of USA Today. In fact, USA Today is unable to print the color of squant until a supply of squant ink is produced. In the gray register, squant appears to look very much like a light cerulean blue or a perhaps a mid-range oxide green but, of course, it isn't. It is reported by those who have seen it that squant is a very unusual-looking color, but that goes without saying. Like all primary colors, it is extremely difficult to describe in terms of comparison. It's not really anything like red or blue or yellow. No, like its better-known two brothers and sister of the primary family, squant must be visually experienced to be known.

. . . . . .

Crosley Bendix,
Director Of Stylistic Premonitions, U.M.N.
was born in Canberra, Austria in 1940. His father was chief speech writer for the U.S. Embassy's Cultural Attache in Sydney. His mother was the former Toy Celica of the Coastal New Brunswick Celicas. Mr. Bendix attended the Ecole des Rules in Sydney, then returned to the United States with his father, who fled Austria under threat of copyright litigation. In the U.S., Mr. Bendix attended the Andover Under School of Arts & Handiwork, took his degree in Social Esthetics from Montana State College, and his Master of Bachelors from the Marriage Institute of America.

(more at link)

[dixiegrrrrl]

40. Most of us don't know squant, I see.

[kentauros]

43. No, we don't.

I'd never even heard of Dr. Squant before that announcement! I don't even know Jack Shit.

[KeepItReal]

37. So much for the Brown® bag lunch...

What's Cleveland gonna do, BTW?

[madokie]

38. Does that mean I can't wear my brown work shirt

its a wrangler so It didn't come from ups.

I try to use USPS when I buy online and thats pretty often.

[LiberalElite]

39. When DHL tried to expand into domestic delivery -

their slogan was "Yellow is the new brown." Uh, no.

[RobinA]

62. I Remember That

I thought that was a clever. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't back it up.

[BootinUp]

42. My shit says they don't. nt

[2naSalit]

44. Oh crap!!!

I am brown, my eyes and hair are brown, my freckles are brown!!!

Does this mean that UPS now owns me and my Sh*t? Can I collect child support because they own me and my Sh*t? Or am I exempt because I was born before UPS existed?

I'm so confused!!!

[malokvale77]

45. I have a good friend...

now retired from UPS. She always advised me to always ship USPS.

[RobinA]

63. The USPS

has made itself quite competitive with the private companies in recent years, and they do tend to have a price advantage. I'd use them more, but there is the small matter of the fact that I work for a living and the post office has decided to keep hours that preclude a person with a full time job from having much access to them. When I'm ready to mail a package, the UPS store is open. Fed Ex - I never ship using them, I have no idea how to reach them with my package.

[oldandhappy]

51. yep!!!

Brown-eyed people and a lot of good ag land and many tree trunks!! Maybe Idaho potatoes and maple syrup. Possibly walnuts, brown rice, and all whole wheat products. Do those who produce paint boxes and crayon boxes have to pay royalties to UPS? giggle That was fun. Thanks.

[dixiegrrrrl]

64. So glad you caught on to the tongue in cheek.

and played along...

[DetlefK]

53. Two things: 1. You can only trademark colors for specific objects/applications.

2. Even if you trademark the color brown in combination with all other sorts of stuff: You can be challenged on a trademark. And if you cannot prove that you use that particular trademark, you are going to lose it.

UPS can trademark brown pencils, but they will lose when anybody puts forth a legal challenge, because brown pencils are not part of the business of UPS.