Prince estate steps up efforts to register purple TM
The estate of the late singer Prince has filed a 430-page submission to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) outlining the musician’s association with the colour purple.
The file is the latest evidence presented by Paisley Park Enterprises, the business entity representing Prince’s estate, in its bid to trademark the colour.
Paisley Park filed the trademark application in October 2018, after New Jersey company Pantone claimed to have created a shade of purple called ‘Love Symbol #2’ in 2017.
In the trademark application, Paisley Park identifies the colour claimed by its mark as “the approximate equivalent of [the] Pantone Matching System colour identified as Love Symbol #2”.
Paisley Park noted that Prince adopted the name Love Symbol #2 in 1993.
The USPTO initially rejected Paisley Park’s application in 2018, noting that many artists had an association with or used the colour purple to promote their music.
In the decision, the USPTO said that the colour alone would not indicate the source of goods or services as being Prince to the public.
The latest response filed by Paisley Park seeks to establish a clear brand association between Prince and the colour purple.
It includes screenshots of reactions to the singer’s death in 2016, such as images of the singer performing against a purple backdrop and the Eiffel Tower being lit in purple.
Paisley Park’s efforts do not mark the first time a company has sought to gain rights over the colour purple.
Last month, the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) invalidated two Cadbury marks for the shade Pantone 2685C after opposition from Nestlé.
One of Cadbury’s trademarks for the colour for purple ‘as shown on the form of application, applied to the whole visible surface of the packaging of the goods’, survived the Nestlé opposition.
The UKIPO ruled that the Pantone code 2685C was sufficient to indicate the colour claimed by the mark, after Nestlé claimed that the description of the mark was ambiguous.
This story was first reported on by The Fashion Law blog.
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