Colour your world with trademark brilliance
What you need to know (in a nutshell)
- Colour plays a significant role in consumer behaviour and is a memorable aspect of a brand.
- Non-conventional trademarks, including colour trademarks, are hard to register but can be successful.
- Many well-known brands have successfully registered their brand colours as trademarks, such as Tiffany Blue and McDonald’s Red & Yellow
Full Article
Colour is one of the most powerful elements when it comes to creating a strong brand identity. A colour can be so memorable and distinguishable that your target market immediately associates it with your business-just think about how you recognize McDonald’s by its golden arches! This plays an integral role in influencing consumer behaviour, which has led to this aspect becoming part of non-conventional trademarks. Non-conventional trademarks are branding components not included on the usual list such as company names, logos or taglines; they include smells, shapes or colours associated with a certain organization - like Pantone’s signature purple for example! However attaining a successful registration for these ‘colour’ non-conventional marks is quite challenging due to having to demonstrate their distinctiveness and exclusivity within any given industry sector – but don’t worry if that sounds intimidating because even though they’re difficult to obtain, it isn’t impossible either!
Colour trademarks are far more common than you might think. A number of popular and well-known brands have registered their signature colours as trademarks, such as Tiffany Blue for the jewellery company; UPS Brown for the shipping giant; and McDonald’s Red & Yellow for everyone’s favourite fast food restaurant. All these companies understand that associating a colour with their brand is an effective way to create recognition among customers – it can be seen clearly on packaging, in advertising materials or simply when they spot one of those iconic logos out in public!
Cadbury Purple and Barbie Pink are just two examples of well-known brand colours that have been trademarked. This is a great way to ensure your business stands out, whether you’re starting up or already established in the market. By registering your unique colour palette with the government as trademarks, it can help protect against competitors using similar shades; preventing confusion amongst customers who may not be able to distinguish between different brands easily due to similarities in their colours alone.