T-Mobile Wants To Own Magenta
Deutsche Telekom AG, mother company to T-Mobile in Holland, is (allegedly) attempting to register the colour Magenta at the European brand office. This would effectively block other companies from using this primary printing colour for their own brands.
Reaction in the Netherlands has been quite negative toward T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom AG, but it has created some great design ideas. What happens to CMYK without the M? FreeMagenta.nl has is posting some possibilities, and is tracking reactions.

COLOURlovers was warning us about this pinkish hostile takeover back in November of 2007, citing some of Deutsche Telekom AG’s claims. It’s not exactly clear:
…the colour magenta [and other designs and logos] are registered and/or unregistered trademarks of Deutsche Telekom AG in the US and/or other countries.
Popularity: 49% [?]
Tags: Color, Colour, FreeMagenta, Holland, lava.nl, magenta, Netherlands, T-mobike



February 5th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
ack! There should be no trademarking of colors. I could see trademarking a special ink and the formula to create a specific color. (ala pantone). But a standard color? That doesn’t seem right.
Maybe I’ll trademark black. I really like it.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
None…
None…