Copyrighting colours (was Re: [LINK] Oracle & Open Source

[Eleanor Lister]

Howard Lowndes wrote:
> Don't get confused between trademarks and copyrights; trademarks are 
> more akin to patents, but I thought some company had its colour 
> trademarks knocked back the other day - one of the big confectionary 
> companies IIRC.
indeed.

Intellectual property covers about 11 types of things (depending on how 
you count them), of which Trademarks and Copyrights are but two.

Another is the notion of Design, which CAN include a colour, but gives 
nowhere near the protection of a Trademark, and only for a limited period.

Claiming things as Trademarks is a very attractive idea to big business, 
since Trademarks last for as long as the corporation  continues to pay 
its annual renewal,  so  corporations are  trying  to  conflate  
Copyright,  Trademark,  Patent,  and Design  into  a single form of IP 
that is permanent (like Trademarks), includes colours and textures (like 
Design) has severe penalties for infringement (like Copyrights) and is 
easily transferable (like Patents).

so far it doesn't work.

the day it does, i am going to Trademark colours #000000 and #FFFFFF, 
Mwaaa Haaa Haaa!!!!

(you can take this announcement as prior art for the purposes of Design)

i am very generous, and will only charge 0.001 cents per page.

make your cheques out to Eleanor Ashley Lister T/A Eye Candy Web 
Spinning (R)

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Eleanor Ashley Lister
South Sydney Greens
http://ssg.nsw.greens.org.au
secretary at ssg.nsw.greens.org.au