T-Mobile wins trademark battle with Aio Wireless

Whenever someone thinks of major companies, sometimes they are reminded by the colors that are associated with its brand. Common examples of such are Coca-Cola's red soda cans or John Deere's green and yellow logo—these facets play a large role in their intellectual property and branding.

Now, T-Mobile will be joining the ranks of such enterprises, after the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled in favor of T-Mobile and its use of magenta, PC Magazine reported. The wireless company was in the midst of an intellectual property battle with Aio Wireless, an AT&T subsidiary.

When Aio Wireless launched last year, it used an alleged plum color on its marketing tools, while offering contract-free wireless plans to prospective customers—something extremely similar to T-Mobile's wireless offerings. After three days in court, Judge Lee Rosenthal decided that Aios Wireless did infringe on T-Mobile's trademark.

"T-Mobile's magenta mark (Pantone Process Magenta) is eligible for protection under the Lanham Act. T-Mobile is that mark's senior user," Rosenthal wrote.

According to court documents, Rosenthal utilized the eight digits of confusion to evaluate Aio's alleged trademark violation. Based on eight grounds like "the strength of the plaintiff's mark," "similarity of products or services," and "evidence of actual confusion," it became more clear that Aio challenged T-Mobile's "brand identification."

Wireless providers that wish to use shades of magenta on their advertising may want to consider choosing another color because they may see another case from T-Mobile in the near future. Doing this in advance can reduce the chance of future lawsuit and money spent on a revamped marketing campaign.

T-Mobile is "very pleased that the federal court in Texas has ordered Aio Wireless, a subsidiary of AT&T, to stop infringing T-Mobile's magenta trademark," its press release reads.

These type of mistakes tend to happen to startups and emerging businesses, but they can avoid such instances with the support of a small business attorney. 

Categorised in: Intellectual Property Law

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