Can Colours become registered as Trade Marks?

Maersk has recently (2020) been granted exclusivity to their special light blue colour. To obtain trade mark protection for a colour is not an easy task. In Denmark there are only two companies. Grundfos being the first. 

In other countries there are certain colours that have been granted for trademarks. UPS has a certain brown colour and Starbucks a certain green, Victorinox has a certain red colour.  To mention but a few.

The application from Maersk was 30 pages long with not only documentation but also pictures. It is highly unusual to grant a colour trademark. It’s one thing to obtain a logo registered as a figurative mark, a word mark or even a sound. Colour is very different. That has something to do with the fact that the colour must be distinctive. 

There was as part of the application results from a survey that showed that 84% or the respondents in their target market knew that the colour was connected to Maersk. 

Grundfos has the exclusive right to produce pumps in a certain red colour. They have been produced since 1959, where as the very first Maersk ship had a chimney that was painted in the light blue colour and that was back in 1886. 

History does play a big role in colour mark granting, at least in Danish Trade Mark legislation. 

A very well known  American company that has a colour registration is of course Tiffany & Co. and a really good example of the value of a trade mark is naturally the fact that LVMH has recently bought Tiffany & co. in order to add to their highly valuable portfolio. 

To know more about the value of owning a trade mark or any other kind of IP read the article here on my site called: The Top 5 Reasons That There Are Financial Advantages To Possessing Intellectual Property

UPDATE (2021): 

A long battle has been going on between to fashion giants: Christian Louboutin & Yves Saint Laurent where on the one hand YSL and a few other players argued against a single colour registration within fashion. Louboutin in opposition with companies like Tiffany & Co on their side had filed lawsuit against YSL for trade mark infringement because they were encroaching upon Louboutin's market or red soled shoes. For some time Louboutin wanted to solve the matter amicably and outside of the court rooms. YSL wasn’t interested in that and responded with a high profile counter claim against Louboutin's lawsuit in 2011. At first the trade mark registration was rejected in the US. 

Then in 2012 the Second Circuit overturned the lower court’s decision. It stated that Louboutin’s red sole has, in fact, “acquired [the necessary] secondary meaning as a distinctive symbol that identifies the Louboutin brand.”  Here’s what the court elaborated: “We see no reason why a single-colour mark in the specific context of the fashion industry could not acquire secondary meaning―and therefore serve as a brand or source identifier―if it is used so consistently and prominently by a particular designer that it becomes a symbol, ‘the primary significance’ of which is ‘to identify the source of the product rather than the product itself.’”  Unfortunately for Louboutin this doesn’t prevent YSL from selling shoes that have a red body and a red sole. 

That wasn’t the end of the battle, because the actual wording of the registration filed by Louboutin. In 2013 the Second Circuit ordered that the USPTO modify the language of Louboutin’s trademark registration. Namely: “a red lacquered outsole on footwear that contrasts with the colour of the adjoining (‘upper’) portion of the shoe.”

The fight continued then in other jurisdictions with varying degree of result. For Louboutin it’s not just about the colour of the sole on their shoes, it’s about branding and story telling as well.

The important thing to realise is that yes colours can be registered for fashion brands as well as other types of business.

The answer to the question is that yes colours can be registered as trade marks, however it does take an awful lot of work to obtain them. My advice is find something else to register. 

Remember to read about this in my book. Control your own Copyright, Trade mark & more… you can order it here: