Okay. I referenced this story earlier today in an Appscout post. I feel like I should probably explain it a bit more now. We were waiting to get confirmation from one of the parties involved, just to play it extra safe, it being April 1st and all, but after waiting a few hours for them to get back to us, it seems like time to go ahead and just report what we know. Being that everyone's in the throes of CTIA, there's a good chance we won't get a response until some time next week.
Engadget reported yesterday that they had received a cease-and-desist letter from Deutsche Telekom--the company that owns T-Mobile--late last week. What sort egregious move could Engadget have commented to invoke the wrath of a German Telecom company? Were they breaking product embargoes, left and right? Were they posting images of the company's higher-ups in incriminating poses?
Nope and Nope.
They were using the color magenta in their mobile logo.
Naturally, despite the fact that that Engadget appended the words "P.S. Not an early April Fool's joke" to the end of the post, we were still suspicious. In fact, if anything, that probably increased our suspicion a touch.
Sascha Segan sent a note to Engadget's Ryan Block, who promptly responded, "I said right in the post it's real. It wasn't even on April 1st. We're not in the business of tricking people, we're in the business of informing them!"
Fair enough.
T-Mobile, for their part, was less swift in its response.
There is, of course, a precedent for this sort of color copyrighting. Wikipedia has an interesting entry on the subject. The jury's still out on patenting absurdities, however.
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April 1, 2008 4:54 PM
You know, Ryan Block saing "We're not in the business of tricking people, we're in the business of informing them," makes me EVEN MORE suspicious.
April 2, 2008 4:27 PM
A:Careful there alan h. Gearlog might sue you for plagerism.
How in the Hell do you copyright a color?.That is just about the stupidest thing I have ever heard.Exceede only by Jack Roush's accusation of MWR stealing one of his swaybars.
Is there a race of aliens that have a ray focused on earth that is turning peoples brains to lime Jello?