I think the point they made quite well was that Pantone was releasing a
colour to the market, specifically promoting it's tie in to the film
franchise. Sure, if i'm just just looking for a vague yellow colour for a
plant seed packet then no harm done.. maybe.
But hey - who'd pick that colour randomly? The fact that Pantone is
highlighting it as a specific 'cute' colour means people will be
specifically choosing it - it has been brought to their attention. Not just
to Time-Warner, not to toy manufacturers, but to the pantone buying market.
So you pick this colour for the next colour release of an anthropomorphic
bubble shaped car, a whimsical costume, a child's toy of any description, a
confectionary products font .. then you've already declared you
deliberately used a 'Minion' color - how can that be anything but trying to
cash in on another's market? .. and thus leave you wide open to face
litigation.
I think the point is well made.. I certainly wouldn't touch the colour. Has
there been a coke red car? No chance.. does anyone use coke red?
interesting thought.. what is Coke Red?
According to one source, the US patent and trademark office
http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78149708&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch
records it as this: http://pantonecolors.org/pantone-484.php
but that drab effort appears to have been lodged in 2002. I read elsewhere
that Coke's red is not represented in a Pantone colour range - maybe for the
reasons made in the original article. Why thow open a marketable colour to
the world?
