Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel claims ownership to the color yellow

From: "havaloc" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 01:21:09 -0000

http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/030916/telecoms_nextel_yellow_1.html

 NEW YORK, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Yellow still means sunshine, bananas,
New York City taxi cabs and smiley faces -- despite Nextel
Communications Inc.'s(NasdaqNM:NXTL - News) assertion earlier this
week it had taken ownership of the color.

"Yellow is the color of optimism, industry and action. Its the color
of done. And we own it," the No. 5 U.S. cell phone company said on
Monday in literature promoting a new advertising campaign, with
posters sporting a sunflower-like hue.

Nextel, which launched the campaign amid new competition for its
walkie-talkie feature known as push-to-talk, made news this summer
after it claimed it owned the phrase "push-to-talk." Rival Verizon
Wireless (London:VOD.L - News; NYSE:VZ - News) has since launched a
push-to-talk service.

Nextel spokesman Chris Grandis said on Tuesday the company was looking
for a bold statement but did not actually try to apply for trademark
rights to use yellow.

"We do not own the color yellow," he said. "We feel that having this
color and some of the things we're doing with this campaign will make
it feel we have a much bigger presence than we've ever had before."

Advertisers and companies, including France Telecom's(Paris:FTE.PA -
News) cellphone unit Orange (Paris:ORA.PA - News), have long used
color to successfully develop brand images. Photographic film maker
Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE:EK - News) is often referred to as Big Yellow
while International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - News) is often
called Big Blue because of their branding colors.

But ad executives mocked the idea of owning color.

"Post-it-notes, highlighters and the sun would be rather disappointed
if they can't use the color yellow," said DiMassimo Brand Advertising
founder Mark DiMassimo.

Another advertising executive said it is hard for a company to take
over a color in the minds of consumers.

"There is a cultural signpost that already exists in everybody's mind
where colors reside," said technology branding agency LB Works' chief
creative officer Steffan Postaer who associates yellow with taxi cabs
and smiley face icons.

A company could own a trademark in a particular color in connection
with certain goods and industries if it establishes that it has
programmed consumers to associate it with that color trademark lawyer
Sally Abel of Fenwick & West said.

"But trademark law very often is shades of gray," Abel said. "We don't
know what the outer boundaries would be." 

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