Re: copyrighting colors?

[Adam Kessel <adam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Mar 24, 2004 at 05:18:52PM -0800, Paul Adams wrote:
> I have had two people tell me recently that colors can be copyrighted. This
> doesn't makes sense to me, as colors do not seem like intellectual property.
> I can't find anything about this from the Copyright Office site. Can anyone
> give me the scoop?

Are you sure they weren't talking about trademarks?  In Qualitex Co.  v.
Jacobson Products Co., Inc., 514 U.S. 159 (1995), the Supreme Court held
that color alone can be registered as a trademark if the color has
acquired secondary meaning and is not functional.  

See, e.g.,

A report on the case
<http://www.gibney.com/LegalNews/Record/colortrademark.cfm>

The opinion itself
<http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/93-1577.ZS.html>
-- 
Adam Kessel
http://adam.rosi-kessel.org