Yes, but it is one of the hardest types of trademark to obtain. The Supreme Court confirmed in Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co. (1995) that a color alone can function as a trademark, but only after you prove that consumers already associate that specific color with your brand. For most businesses, there is a more practical way to protect a brand color, and I walk clients through that decision regularly.
What the USPTO Requires
A standard word mark or logo can be inherently distinctive. A color mark cannot. Under TMEP Section 1202.05, color marks are never inherently distinctive, which means every color trademark application must establish acquired distinctiveness under Section 2(f) of the Lanham Act. The USPTO will refuse registration on the Principal Register without it.
Acquired distinctiveness (also called secondary meaning) means that consumers see your color and think of your company, not just the color itself. The evidence bar is high, and the USPTO wants to see multiple types of proof stacked together:
- Five years of substantially exclusive and continuous use is the minimum the USPTO considers under Section 2(f), but for color marks, five years alone is rarely enough. Most successful registrations involve decades of consistent use in a single industry.
- You need advertising records showing how much you spent promoting the color as a brand identifier. Owens Corning spent years marketing “the pink stuff” before the Federal Circuit allowed registration of pink for fiberglass insulation in 1985, making it the first color trademark in U.S. history.
- Consumer survey evidence is where most applications either succeed or die. A properly designed survey measures whether a significant portion of your target consumers identify your color with your brand. These surveys typically cost $30,000 to $80,000 when conducted by a qualified expert, with $55,000 being a common midpoint. The survey must follow accepted methodologies, because courts and the TTAB routinely exclude surveys with flawed designs.
- Unsolicited media coverage, industry awards, or third-party references to your brand by its color all strengthen the case.
The burden is substantial. A five-year use statement and some advertising invoices will not get a color mark registered. The USPTO expects the kind of evidence package that, in practice, only businesses with significant marketing budgets and long track records can assemble.
Why This Is a Big-Brand Game
Every well-known color that has been trademarked belongs to a company with decades of market presence and millions in advertising spend. Tiffany & Co. used its robin’s egg blue on packaging since the 1800s before registering it in 1998. UPS registered Pullman Brown that same year after using it since the 1920s. T-Mobile registered magenta in 2007 after building a global wireless brand around it.
The John Deere case shows how specific these protections are. John Deere does not own the color green for agricultural equipment. What it protects is the combination of green and yellow in a specific layout on its machines. A federal court confirmed that competitors could use green or yellow independently, or pair either with something else. That association took over a century to build.
Christian Louboutin’s red sole tells a similar story. In 2012, the Second Circuit ruled that Louboutin’s red outsole was a valid trademark, but only when the red sole contrasts with the upper shoe’s color. An all-red shoe does not infringe. Even after proving secondary meaning, the court ordered the USPTO to narrow the registration.
There are no widely cited examples of a small or mid-sized business successfully registering a standalone color mark. The evidence threshold effectively requires the kind of consumer recognition that comes from national advertising campaigns sustained over many years.
The Better Option for Most Businesses
If your brand relies on a specific color, you almost certainly have a stronger and cheaper path to protection than trying to register the color alone.
Register Your Logo in Its Specific Colors
Filing a trademark for a logo that incorporates your brand color protects the visual identity your customers actually recognize. This is a standard trademark application at the normal cost: $1,195 plus government filing fees of $350 per class. No consumer survey required. No decades of proof.
One strategic note: a logo filed in black and white covers the design in any color combination and gives you broader enforcement rights, while a logo filed in color locks your protection to that exact color scheme. Many companies file the black-and-white version first and add a color-specific registration later. FedEx, Starbucks, Google, and Apple all followed this approach.
Consider Trade Dress
Trade dress covers the overall visual impression of your product or packaging, including color as one element among several. If your brand color appears on distinctive packaging, product design, or a retail environment, trade dress protects the total look without requiring you to prove the color alone has secondary meaning. The distinctiveness bar is lower when color is part of a larger visual package.
Build the Record Now, File Later
If you believe your brand color will become a source identifier over time, start documenting everything: consistent Pantone specifications, advertising spend tied to the color, customer testimonials that mention the color, media coverage. Use the color the same way, in the same context, for years. If secondary meaning develops, you will have the evidence ready for a future application.
If You Are Serious About a Color Mark
For the rare business that has the history and the budget, here is what the process looks like.
The filing uses the same federal trademark registration process as any other mark, but the application must include a color drawing showing the exact color and its placement, a written description of where the color appears, and a claim of acquired distinctiveness under Section 2(f). The government filing fee is $350 per class.
The real cost is in the evidence. A consumer recognition survey runs $30,000 to $80,000. Expert witness testimony for an office action or TTAB challenge adds $200 to $450 per hour. Attorney time for compiling years of advertising records, sales data, and market research comes on top of that.
Enforcement adds another layer. T-Mobile obtained an injunction against AT&T’s Aio Wireless in 2013 for using a similar shade in the same industry. But when Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile’s parent) sued insurance startup Lemonade for using magenta in a different industry, a French court revoked Deutsche Telekom’s magenta mark for financial services entirely in 2020. Color marks are limited to the goods and services in your registration, and enforcing outside your industry is difficult even with a massive legal budget.
From application to registration, expect 12 to 18 months if there are no objections, and longer if the examining attorney questions your evidence of acquired distinctiveness. At least one office action requesting additional proof is typical.
Next Steps
Most clients who ask me about trademarking a color end up protecting their brand more effectively through a logo registration or trade dress strategy. If you want to know which approach fits your situation, contact my office and I will give you a direct answer based on what you actually have.
