Ballet shoes, roses, and sunsets had better watch out.
A federal court has handed T-Mobile the rights to its distinctive magenta trademark color, shutting out AT&T subsidiary Aio Wireless from using the color, T-Mobile said in a statement Saturday.
The two companies got into a legal battle after Aio Wireless used the color magenta to compete with T-Mobile, and months of wrangling have now resulted in T-Mobile being granted the right to magenta, instead of Aio.
In a complaint last August, T-Mobile said that after it set up a no-contract service to compete with dominant wireless provider AT&T, its rival responded “by setting up a wholly owned subsidiary, Aio, which—out of all the colors in the universe—chose magenta” to promote its own new, competing no-contract service.
Granted, the implications of the case likely don’t extend much beyond telecommunications companies offering similar services, but it does mean that T-Mobile’s use of magenta is protected by trademark law. Lovers of pink may have to lay low for a while.