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December 31

How can you patent a color?

Our article on Santa suits says that "The shade of red used on the Santa suit outfits in Coca-Cola advertisements is patented to the company." How can that be? A patent covers an invention. Did Coca-Cola just invent a new point in the RGB colorspace? It would make more sense if it was a trademark, but the cited source says "patent" too. Anyone feel like dredging up USPTO or other primary-source documentation on whatever form of IP they actually have? (I did a cursory search and couldn't find anything indicating they claim or have ever claimed anything of the sort.) « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 05:48, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

People often use terms regarding intellectual property incorrectly. The terms "patent", "copyright", and "trademark" are used by many people interchangably, though they describe three very different types of intellectual property. I think in this case the article meant to say that the color is trademarked by Coca-Cola, which is possible in many jurisdictions, per the Wikipedia article Colour trademark. --Jayron32 05:53, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Could it be that they patented a paint or dye formulation rather than the color itself? SteveBaker (talk) 07:47, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This is a taxonomy made all the more confusing by the existence of design patents, which are weird copyright/patent hybrids. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:32, 1 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Coca Cola's own website does not suggest that the red per se is in any way proprietary (of course this is negative evidence) but it does say that Thomas Nast changed Santa Claus' coat to red long before Coca Cola started using the figure. --ColinFine (talk) 11:43, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

btw, Cadbury has also trademarked the purple they use. HandsomeNick (TALK) (EDITS) 12:04, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Lord Percy discovered "purest Green". --Dweller (talk) 12:16, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It probably means trademark, not patent. Although it'd be easy to imagine one patenting the forumula for a specific paint, for example, if it met all the other criteria. Shadowjams (talk) 21:48, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If the color was "patented", it would be tough to prove that this color had never been produced before the patent (the "prior art" defense). This is especially true of color in a computer because there are only 16,777,216 possible colors and every single one of them has been published a bazillion times before. (For example, this image contains every single computer-displayable color). SteveBaker (talk) 18:03, 3 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You can't patent a specific wavelength of light or a specific combination of wavelengths, but you could perhaps patent a process for making them. That is, the color itself probably couldn't be patented, but one could envision some specific means of producing a color could. That isn't the same thing, though. It's a bit like the difference between patenting a better mousetrap, or patenting a mouse. --Jayron32 18:09, 3 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In the US you CAN Patent a rodent, IIRC there was a genetically modified mouse used for medical research work. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 11:46, 4 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You can patent a method of genetically modifying a mouse. Any one specific rodent, however, is not patentable. Important distinction. --Jayron32 15:07, 4 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Are there toy porbeagles?

I'm looking for toy porbeagles (material is not that important). While there are many toy sharks of undefined species and many great whites, I failed to find porbeagles yet. But of course, there are many toy producers in many languages... does anybody have a hint? --KnightMove (talk) 13:53, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

For a minute there I thought you were looking for a pet. μηδείς (talk) 22:55, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I thought it was a dog selling the Big Issue. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 23:32, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

All I can find is a bag on Amazon with a picture of one on it. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 23:35, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A toy of a specific species of shark might be hard to find. To the vast majority of people, nearly all sharks look (and behave) the same. Your best bet might be to find a welfare or conservation organisation that specifically deals with porbeagles; and maybe they will have a toy available for publicity purposes. Astronaut (talk) 11:01, 1 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]