Copyright/Trademark

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Oldwagon

Oldwagon

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Jan 31, 2009
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New Albany,Indiana
I was thinking about all the talk lately on this subject.If you look around there are things you touch everyday that has Copyright,Trademark and patents on them.How about fried chicken,potato chips,soft drinks,beer.The list goes on and on.So can someone tell me the difference in things you see everyday and things that have been brought up here lately?Someday someone might ask me to turn them a pen of questionable material one day and I want to be able to tell them I can or can't.I got a order yesterday for a pen with the colors on a Pelican pen.She wants a roller ball.So do you think if I sell her a Navigator.Pelican is going to be mad because I used these colors?Just a thought.I need to let her know if she is going to get a pen or am I going to lose a customer.Thank you for any input.
 
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i'm not sure that you can actually patent a color...i would think like nfl team colors...you can't use their logo, but the colors are available to anyone...just my take on it...
 
Not sure if I'm reading the original question correctly...

Are you asking if you made a pen out of Grape-Nuts and acrylic(and then sold it as a "Grape-Nut Pen", would it be a Trademark infringement?



Scott (it's a good question) B
 
colors

Oldwagon said:
I was thinking about all the talk lately on this subject.If you look around there are things you touch everyday that has Copyright,Trademark and patents on them.How about fried chicken,potato chips,soft drinks,beer.The list goes on and on.So can someone tell me the difference in things you see everyday and things that have been brought up here lately?Someday someone might ask me to turn them a pen of questionable material one day and I want to be able to tell them I can or can't.I got a order yesterday for a pen with the colors on a Pelican pen.She wants a roller ball.So do you think if I sell her a Navigator.Pelican is going to be mad because I used these colors?Just a thought.I need to let her know if she is going to get a pen or am I going to lose a customer.Thank you for any input.
Click to expand...

Some things can not be trademarked and colors per se are one of them. You can not trademark a color (say red) or group of colors but you might be able to trademark a specific arrangement of colors (but not in all cases for instance a blue field with white stars). Trade marks are funny too...if you select a common thing like a Triangle as a trade mark, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to stop someone else from using it unless you do something to make it unique and then only that specific unique design would be protected. My guess is that you can use the colors unless they are in some kind of unique arrangement.
 
The grape nuts pen is fine to sell but you would not be able to advertise it as a Grape Nuts® brand pen without their written permission. The name "Grape Nuts" is trademarked, but the use of the breakfast cereal to make a pen you resell is not breaking any copyright or trademark laws.

Now if you made a double closed ended black acrylic pen and put a white six soft pointed star on the top of it and put "Meisterstuck" on a gold center band, you're gonna get a nasty letter from a law firm requesting you cease and desist.

Using similar colors from a brand name isn't copyright or trademark infringement. You're good to go.

[I'm not an intellectual property attorney, but as a publisher I've given them thousands of dollars through the years and learned a bit about intellectual property law]
 
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