Color Marks, Inherent and Acquired Distinctiveness, and Lessons From Fruity Pebbles

Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
Intermediate
- work Practice Area
Trademark and Copyright
- event Date
Friday, May 31, 2024
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
-
This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE webinar will guide IP counsel on color marks and how the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) and the courts have treated color marks. The panel will discuss proving distinctiveness and demonstrating that color is not functional. The panel will offer best practices for protecting color marks.
Faculty

For more than 25 years Ms. Talley has specialized in strategic trademark counseling and portfolio enhancement, developing anti-counterfeiting solutions and strategies, and resolving trademark disputes. She is particularly sought after for her expertise in enforcing brand rights against infringers and counterfeiters seeking to profit from her clients’ well-known brands. In addition to managing her robust practice, Ms. Talley has worked as an adjunct professor teaching trademark law at The George Washington University Law School. She also frequently speaks and writes on trademark issues to a variety of public and private audiences and has been active for many years in leading IP organizations, including the INTA and the Intellectual Property Owner’s Association (IPO). She is the Vice Chair of IPO’s Anti-Counterfeiting Committee and Co-Chair of AIPLA’s Cannabis Tech Subcommittee and serves on INTA’s Brands and Innovation Committee.

Ms. Dalier focuses her practice on U.S. and international trademark clearance, prosecution, enforcement, and portfolio management for clients in a wide variety of industries, including pharmaceuticals, communications, electronics, machinery, manufacturing, software, entertainment, finance, fashion and foods. She has significant experience in trademark prosecution before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board proceedings. Ms. Dalier conducts due diligence reviews of IP assets, and counsels clients on mark and logo selection, packaging review, brand protection, expansion, and management. She also counsels clients on domain name matters, website review, and licensing matters. Prior to entering private practice, Ms. Dalier worked for more than seven years as a Trademark Examining Attorney at the USPTO.
Description
Color has often confounded trademark practitioners. In January 2024, in a precedential decision, the TTAB affirmed the denial of Post Foods' application to register a color mark for its fruity, colorful pebbles. In In re Post Foods L.L.C. (TTAB Jan. 4, 2024) the Board noted that under Qualitex v. Jacobson Products (U.S. 1995) color marks can never be inherently distinctive. Post Foods needed to demonstrate its mark had acquired distinctiveness.
In 2020, the Federal Circuit issued a precedential opinion in In re Forney Industries Inc., in which the court held color marks can be inherently distinctive when used on product packaging even when the color mark is not defined by a peripheral shape or border.
One of the challenges facing IP counsel is proving that the color mark is not functional and also that it is distinctive. Despite the Federal Circuit's ruling, showing distinctiveness remains a hurdle to getting trademark protection.
Listen as our authoritative panel of IP attorneys examines color marks and how the TTAB and the courts have treated color marks. The panel will discuss proving distinctiveness and demonstrating that color is not functional. The panel will offer best practices for protecting color marks.
Outline
- Recent TTAB and court treatment of color marks
- Proving distinctiveness
- Demonstrating color is not functional
- Best practices for protecting color marks
Benefits
The panel will review these and other important questions:
- What lessons can be drawn from the TTAB's decision in In re Post Foods L.L.C.?
- What steps can counsel take to demonstrate distinctiveness of a color mark?
- What approaches should counsel consider to register a color mark successfully?
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