Roy G. Biv, Inc.?

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Arts & Entertainment

So I was watching Primary Colors this afternoon and I was curious about the real life identity of the characters, so I did what I always do, a Google search. As usual I found what I was looking for and then some. I accidently hit the Google News button with the search term "primary colors" typed in the search bar in Firefox, I was fortuitously guided to an intriguing story about the coming wave of copyrighting and trademarking of colors.

As noted in the story, Oprah has pursued branded the letter O, and Trump payed big bucks for the phrase "Your Fired", but colors have never formally been claimed as a corporate identity. Companies like UPS and American Express have tried to use color association as a marketing ploy, but this breaks new and interesting ground.

What I find most intriguing is that once one company secures the sole proprietorship of a color, all the rest of the colors of the rainbow are fair game, not to mention the many thousands of variations. I think it would be fun and interesting to try to claim an obscure color, like turquois or magenta, and make it my own. Then I could charge clothing companies royalty fees. I guess I wouldn't do that, but it would be an interesting documentary to follow the litgation that would go into determining the sensibleness of such a phenomenon of the free markets.

If anyone would like to share their ideas on what color I should claim and why please feel free to leave them.

Tags: markets, primary colors, Roy G. Biv