Colombia’s Trademark Authority (The superintendence of Commerce and Industry) has allowed the Industrial Property division to giveaway 16 color brands for the moment. Nevertheless, for the registration process to be successful as Nestlé’s, that was approved on February 4th of 2015, conceding the green color (Pantone 183 C) registration, the product has to meet certain requirements to finally become the lone holder.
The registration of a brand color has been a subject that has favored some enterprises, but on the other hand it is a somehow troublesome process. Since the exclusivity right is given to the holder, making its use in markets for same products and services impossible for thirds. For this reason is good to have in mind the important role that a color has when a person is creating a brand or a product.
In order for a color to be consider as a brand color it has to be extremely distinctive or acquired a second significant on the market, meaning that the product and the company that produces it has to be recognized and associate by the consumer by just seeing its color. Additionally it is important that the object that will have be representing the color brand do not have the natural form in which the color is characterize. For example, it is not allow registering a product that is yellow that has the shape of a banana.
Colombia, France, United States, Spain and Switzerland are some of the countries where big companies has been granted with the color brands, such as Nestlé, Postobón, Milka chocolates, the Barcelona soccer club, the oil company BP and Christian Louboutin the shoe wear company.
Postobón, is the first company in Colombia to have a brand color, in this case, the pink color (Pantone 183 C), which is the color of their soda named Manzana. The petition was establish on 2009 but it had an opposition from Acava Limited that are the owners of another soda company known as Big Cola, nevertherless the Superintendence decide to grant the color brand to Postobón because their product fullfill the conditions in order to have the title deed for the pink color.
To justify this decision the Superintendence selected a group of people in 2009 and again in 2014 to make an exercise that lay in recognizing a product by only seeing it’s physical aspect without the brand. The place each person in front of a glass with a pink liquid, they ask them to which company or soda product they associated that glass and the 77% of the people answered Manzana Postobón, affirming that this product is distinctive.
Other cases that had a successful end in this process, is the soccer team from Spain, Barcelona Club, they placed an application to register the colors blue and dark red, that and significant and distinctive in their uniforms. In 2004 the American company Kraft, owners of the chocolate brand Milka, also registered the color purple that is use in their packages.
More than one company has placed this application with excellent results. It is important to know that the kind of procedures can take time but once you have a good result it will give you a worthy place in your industry.
