Question

Case: Qualitex & Co. v. Jacobson Products, Inc. Facts: Since the 1950s, Qualitex has used a special shade of green-gold color on the pads that it makes for dry cleaning presses. After Jacobson Products (a Qualitex rival) began to use a similar shade on its own press pads, Qualitex registered its color as a trademark and filed suit against Jacobson for trademark infringement. Issue: Does the Lanham Act permit a color to be trademarked? Holding: Yes. Color alone can be used as a trademark where that color identifies and distinguishes a particular brand (and thus indicates its “source”). Customers identified the color as Qualitex's.

Question 3: Can any color be trademarked?

Answer 1

Colors can be certainly trademarked if the same represents some unique characteristics that help associate it to certain entity for example, in the case of Christian Louboutin, who was a foot artist’s case. He trademarked the ‘red soles’. In other case, the pink color for fiberglass insulation was trademarked by Owens Corning. However, one thing is to be particularly noted in case of trademarking the color that the colors could be only trademarked in the cases wherein the colors are the sole identity of the source of such a product, else it cannot be.