Magenta colour mark: Deutsche Telekom vs. Lemonade

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[:de]The dispute over Deutsche Telekom's colour trademark Magenta, which has been registered since 1995, is receiving greater media coverage. The start-up company Lemonade has applied to the German Patent Office for cancellation of the trademark for the insurance sector and to the EU Patent Office for EU cancellation of the trademark. Furthermore, a social media campaign has been launched under the hashtag #freethepink.

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Unbelievable but true: Telekom is trying to declare the colour magenta its own and to take it away from as many areas of application as possible. This is also happening in sectors in which it is not even active. Several companies have already complied with the corresponding warnings sent by Telekom, including Lemonade, which has been advertising in red instead of its actual house colour magenta since 2018, but is now fighting back. This is courageous and of great importance for the future of freedom of colour.

A DPMA trade mark search shows that the telecom magenta has been registered in very different ways, up to red areas. So not only the exact telemagenta (RAL 4010), but a whole range between violet, pink and red is owned by Telekom. Unfortunately, there are no rules or judgements on how much DeltaE a permissible colour must deviate from a colour mark. Other colour trademark owners are likely to follow the aggressive Telekom example - ultimately we will end up in a world where the free use of colours is no longer allowed because they "belong" to someone else. If we don't want this, we have to do something about it. (Holger Everding)

DPMA trade mark search "Colour mark, telecom"

Trade mark search German Patent and Trade Mark Office:
https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/marke/einsteiger
(select "colour mark" as trade mark form and enter "Telekom" as proprietor)

Twitter campaign "#freethepink":
https://twitter.com/hashtag/freethepink?f=live

Instagram campaign "#freethepink":
https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/freethepink/?hl=de

Supplements

07.12.2019: Pink-Out Extension

A Lemonade developer has released a Chrome extension that replaces all magenta tones from a website with grey. This is intended to make the web legally compliant. On the one hand, this is meant to be humorous, but on the other hand it is a perfectly logical consequence of trademark law.

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/pink-out-extension

 

18.09.2020: The Hustle: Can a corporation own a colour?

Readable and substantial article on the topic on "The Hustle

 

09.01.2021: Telekom loses legal battle over Magenta in France

The insurance start-up won an important victory in the Magenta trademark dispute in France at the end of 2020. French authorities now found that "there is no evidence of genuine use of the mark for the disputed services [by Deutsche Telekom]".

Article from "Versicherungswirtschaft heute".
[:en]

Colour trademark Magenta: Deutsche Telekom vs. Lemonade

The dispute about the colour trademark Magenta of Deutsche Telekom, which has been registered since 1995, has received a great deal of media attention. The start-up company Lemonade has applied to the German Patent Office for the cancellation of the trademark for the insurance sector and to the EU Patent Office for the EU cancellation of the trademark. Furthermore, a social media campaign has been launched under the hashtag #freethepink.

Comment

Unbelievable but true: Telekom is trying to declare the colour magenta its property and to take it away from as many areas of application as possible. This also applies to industries in which it is not active at all. Several companies have already followed the corresponding warnings sent by Telekom, including Lemonade, which has been advertising in red instead of its actual corporate colour magenta since 2018, but is now fighting back. This is courageous and of great importance for the future of freedom from colour.

A DPMA trade mark search shows that telecom magenta was registered in very different ways, even in red areas. So not only the exact telemagenta (RAL 4010), but a whole range between violet, pink and red is owned by Telekom. Unfortunately, there are no rules and judgments whatsoever as to how much DeltaE a permissible colour must deviate from a colour mark. Other colour brand owners are likely to follow the aggressive Telekom example - eventually we will end up in a world where the free use of colours is no longer allowed because they "belong" to someone else. If we do not want this, we have to do something about it. (Holger Everding)

DPMA trademark search "Colour trademark, Telekom"

Trademark Search German Patent and Trademark Office:
https://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/marke/einsteiger
(select "colour mark" as the trade mark form and register "Telekom" as the owner)

Twitter campaign "#freethepink":
https://twitter.com/hashtag/freethepink?f=live

Instagram campaign "#freethepink":
https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/freethepink/?hl=de

Supplement 07.12.2019: Pink-Out Extension

A lemonade developer has published a chrome extension which replaces all magenta tones from a website with grey. This should make the web legally compliant. On the one hand this is meant humorously, but on the other hand it is a logical consequence of trademark law.

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/pink-out-extension

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  1. It's absurd, but it's intentional, unfortunately. At some point it will end up like in the USA: if a Coca Cola logo is in the picture there, you can be sentenced as a photographer to pay licence fees. In this case, it would probably be enough to have a wall with a shade of the telecoms in the picture.

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