easyMobile are facing a legal battle with Orange over their decision to brand their company in orange. easyMobile was launched last summer and planned to begin in full-orange glory. Orange, a well established company who have built their reputation and brand for over 10 years on the colour orange were naturally a little ticked off by this move. Orange believe that they own the colour exclusively for telecommunications services. Their argument is that an orange coloured brand identity for mobile phones is automatically associated with them. easyMobile is very orange. They argue that anyone else using the colour in the sector would be ‘passing-off’, namely trading on the reputation of Orange. Previous cases like this in the US would indicate that Orange is likely to win, the principle that a single color may receive trademark protection is widely accepted. It does raise the question of how similar a colour has to be to be considered a 'copy' as there are only a limited number of recognised colours and that allowing companies to appropriate colors will soon lead to the "depletion" of all of the attractive colors in each product line. Any questions? via. tristan Sources/Further reading: http://akvis.com/en/articles/color-and-design/who-owns-hues.phphttp://www.lingolab.co.uk/lab_notes/archives/000123.html