Monzo attempts to trademark Hot Coral

It is, very cheeky.

Depending on where they got the picture from it could be copyrighted.

Is Monzo even hot coral any more, given the variations in debit card colours?

Iā€™ve seen a lot of highways engineers wearing hot coral overallsā€¦

Ohā€¦

On a more serious note, Pantone already has a Hot Coral:
https://www.pantone.com/color-finder/17-1656-TPX

Also, thereā€™s some useful guidance on trademarking colours here: http://www.keepcalmtalklaw.co.uk/is-it-possible-to-trademark-a-colour/

In particular, this:

Thus, if a colour is held to have a functional property of any product it cannotbe registered as a trademark. In Orange Communications, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board denied registration of the colours orange and yellow for public telephones because it ensures the goodsā€™ better visibility under any lighting condition. Hence orange is not seen as a unique colour helping the promotion of the manufacturer, but simply a tool to aid visibility.

Really?

Iā€™ve moved you post to another thread on the topic

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Really they tried to trademark it, or really they werenā€™t able to?!

My merging skills werenā€™t fast enough for your ninja edits!

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Well, I suppose, why did they try to trademark a colour?

(Oops - hadnā€™t noticed the existing thread).

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Because Monzo cards are recognised by their colour and people are associating hot coral with Monzo :slight_smile:

Plenty of companies have done the same with mixed success. For example dyno-rod have trademarked the day-glo orange.

Please correct me if I am wrong, didnā€™t Cadbury successfully trademark itā€™s purple colour?

I think someone mentioned earlier in this topic that they tried but failed :man_shrugging:

Curious to know who else I Googled and found there are loads of colour trademarks. EG:

  • UPS - Brown
  • Tiffany & Co - Robinā€™s egg blue
  • CAT- Caterpillar Yellow

:exploding_head:

Iā€™ve now read extensively on the whole subject and am, therefore, an expert.

Still canā€™t make head nor tail of it though :face_with_raised_eyebrow:.

(But then again, perhaps it doesnā€™t matter a whole lot in the scheme of things?)

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Nope, theyā€™ve been trying and failing for a couple of decades now.

T-mobile were successful with their pink!

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What I donā€™t understand with this type of marketing is itā€™s actually reinforcing the brand for existing customers, much in the same way that Starlingā€™s adverts only really make sense to Monzo customers. For anyone that doesnā€™t know what Monzo is, or doesnā€™t know the brand as well as other established brands, I imagine they just glaze over.

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