RED found to be functional for safety goods.">RED found to be functional for safety goods.
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board issued a recent decision upholding the examiner’s refusal to register the color RED for non-functional plastic training equipment shaped like knives, flashlights, pistols, and other objects used for training law enforcement personnel.
The company, Armament Systems, colored all of its “toy” weapons and armament items in a bright red. This was done, Armament said, to distinguish it immediately from actual firemarms or other functional pieces of equipment. The TTAB, in affirming the examining attorney’s refusal to register the color, noted that there were obvious safety advantages to using the color red, and as such, the color must remain available to manufacturers of competitive equipment for their use.
The decision is interesting in that the TTAB used as evidence against Armament its own cease and decist letters to third parties. These letters were sent to other law enforcement training companies who had been using red on their training equipment prior to getting the letters. Armament introduced the letter into evidence to show that in fact, competitors did not need to use red; all of them had changed their color as a result of receiving the letters. The TTAB found, however, that not using the color red actually put Armament’s competitors at a distinct disadvantage since red was the color associated with safety by law enforcement personnel.