The Universe Belongs to Me!

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

I had an email from UPS this morning - advising me of delivery later today. In the "small print" at the foot of the mail I noticed this interesting tit-bit:

"© 2017 United Parcel Service of America, Inc. UPS, the UPS brandmark, and the colour brown are trademarks of United Parcel Service of America, Inc. All rights reserved.

All trademarks, trade names, or service marks that appear in connection with UPS's services are the property of their respective owners."

Now no problem of course with UPS protecting their logo and their initials in the style they do them etc. But "the colour brown"?????

I could conceivably see that it might be possible to protect a particular pan-tone developed especially for them - but the entire colour claimed, and presumably protected, - as a trademark? Surely not?

If it is allowable I think I might make a move on all the other colours: the full Richard of York,...etc. Throw in white and black for full measure (omitting brown of course because UPS already have that) and I could stop anyone printing anything! Well UPS could print "brown on brown" - but somehow I don't think that would work so well.

But don't worry; I'll grant permission for the Mag to use all "my" colours - for a "consideration" of course!

BEB

[McG 6969]

... are you taking those nasty and detrimental pills again, sir? ...

... watch your step as 'brown' is only a mix of green & red... green itself being just yellow & blue... etc...

... as for 'printing', you'll need to patent YMC - aka Yellow, Magenta & Cyan - as well. Plus a touch of black, of course.

Good luck with the 'considerations', young man.

Cheers

Chris

 

Edited By McG 6969 on 15/11/2017 13:00:19

[Don Fry]

As you say, rally cars go mad behond York.

But I think they are referring to trying to deliver parcels in a van painted in that peculiar shade of dog dirt brown.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Brown is only a mixture of green/Red ? used Black when i wor a lad.

[Keith Lomax]

A former colleague had previously worked in the UK head office of UPS. He was very critical of the Americanised culture, and fell out with is line director because he "didn't have Brown blood".

[McG 6969]

Yep John, only red & green, but as pure as possible, like RGB 255, 0, 0 (or RAL 3024) for the red & RGB 0, 255, 0 (or RAL 6038) for the green. You can always add a bit of black if you want it darker, of course.

By the way, if you want to obtain a perfect military camo kaki, just take some ocher (yellow-brownish colour) and sparingly add some preferably 'flat' black until you get the shade of kaki that you want. Simples and jobs a good un...

Cheers

Chris

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

But which Green..it being a mix of Yellow/Blue..it's not all Black and White this topic when you think about it

I note that Colour is spelt correctly there BEB spellcheck still wants the U taken out though.

[Martin Dance 1]

Seems perfectly reasonable to me, after all Kodak hold the copywrite on Kodak Yellow and I believe BP have rights on the particular shade of green they use. I suspect UPS might come unstuck if they tried to control the use of 'brown' as a colour, especially as there is quite a lot of brown substances which might be thrown at them.

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Ah Martin, I agree. A particular shade of brown "UPS Brown" - maybe reasonable. But just "the colour brown"? No, surely not?

BEB

[John Lee]

From the Trademark Registration:

"Description of Mark: The mark consists of the color chocolate brown, which is the approximate equivalent of Pantone Matching System 462C, as applied to the entire surface of vehicles and uniforms. The mark consists of the color brown alone. The broken lines indicate the position of the mark and do not form part of the mark."

Trademarks apply only to the industry that they are registered with, so there is nothing to stop you using the colour for, say, a chocolate wrapper. Talking of which Cadburys lost a 10 year battle to trademark their purple last year

[Don Fry]

Mind, this time of year, a big dog dirt brown van gives fair warning of a stressed psychopath on board.

But I love the Pantone being described as chocolate brown.

Brings to mind the village intruders somewhere in the Cotswolds, who lost there application to have their lane renamed to Cowslip Lane, from Cowpat Lane.

[iqon]

Think I`ll make a move on the letter A