Recent trade mark decisions in Europe highlight just how
difficult it can be to protect colour through trade mark law.
In the recent UK case of Glaxo v Sandoz, at issue was
the validity of a registration for a trade mark that showed a
representation of a purple-coloured inhaler, together with a
description reading that the trade mark consists of the
"colour dark purple (Pantone Code 2587C) applied to a
significant proportion of an inhaler and the colour light purple
(Pantone Code 2567C) applied to the remainder of the
inhaler".
Unsurprisingly, the court held that the registration wasn't
valid. The reason: it wasn't sufficiently clear, precise and
unambiguous and all those other good things that the courts and
Trade Mark Offices have been requiring ever since the famous
decision of Libertel. In this case, the European court
said that a colour can be registered if it can be "represented
graphically in a way that is clear, precise, self-contained, easily
accessible,
