Bell Canada seeks to trademark blue colour used across its branding

Customers may recognize the medium dark shade of cyan-blue from the logo at the top of their monthly phone and internet bill, or from a billboard advertising the latest new television program airing soon.

To painters, it may simply be known as Pantone 301.

But Bell Canada BCE-T is hoping to formalize it as “Bell Blue,” after applying earlier this month to trademark the colour used across its branding.

If approved by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, the trademark would give the telecom and media giant exclusive rights for a decade to use the colour across a variety of good and services it offers, including on phones and TVs, software programs and advertising campaigns.

Trademark lawyer Graham Hood of Smart and Biggar LLP said trademarking a colour is a useful way for companies to set themselves apart.

“In a Canadian marketplace saturated with brands, goods, services, I think anything a savvy brand owner can do to stand out is worthwhile,” he said of Bell’s move, which was first noted by MobileSyrup.

“Protecting a colour with which a brand is associated is one of those ways.”

But it’s not all that common for Canadian companies to lay claim to a colour, said Hood. For instance, neither of Bell’s top rivals, Rogers Communications Inc. and Telus Corp., have sought to register their own distinctive colours, according to the Canadian Trademarks Database.

In 2019, Canada’s Trademarks Act was amended to allow for the registration of colours alone, expanding the option from only colours associated with the surface of a particular object. But in order to register a colour mark, the applicant must prove it is “distinctive” – or that the colour would prompt “the average Canadian consumer … to distinguish the applicant’s goods and services from those of others in the marketplace,” said Hood.

He said that can be difficult to prove, a process that involves submitting evidence such as sales figures to show how many goods or services have been associated with the colour, or advertising spends that promote the colour mark.

“All of that evidence can cost a lot of money to assemble and it’s also likely that many brands simply don’t have that distinctiveness as of yet,” said Hood.

“It can take years and years and millions and millions of dollars for brands to establish a colour as distinctive.”

Another possible reason for Canadian companies’ hesitance is how long the process can take. Hood said that due to delays being experienced by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, which is a special operating agency of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the current wait time from filing an application to examination is more than four years.

That has left companies such as TD Bank, which filed an application to trademark its “TD Green” in 2020, Mastercard International, which since 2019 has been seeking to register its combination of red and yellow, and Purdy’s Chocolates, which last year sought to trademark violet, still awaiting reviews.

Others, such as John Deere, only saw their approval come through this year after filing an application to trademark a yellow-green combination in 2018.

In a statement, Bell said the trademark application for “Bell Blue” builds on registrations it already owns for its brands.

“Bell’s distinctive blue is already registered in association with the Bell logo, and with the recent amendments to the Trademarks Act allowing for colours to be registered, we’re seeking trademark protection for our distinctive blue per se, similar to how Interac, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Mastercard are seeking protection for their recognizable brand colours,” said spokeswoman Jessica Benzinger.

Toronto Metropolitan University marketing management professor Joanne McNeish said colour plays an important role in consumer identification of a brand when judging authenticity and “actually causing us to look at the brand” in the first place.

“The importance of colour is that unlike things like the brand name, the ingredients list, colour actually goes quicker into our mind and it actually has an emotional effect on our reaction to the package and the brand,” she said.

In Bell’s case, she said trademarking “Bell Blue” may be an attempt to use an “unconscious cue” to re-establish trust in its brand at a time when Canadian consumers’ confidence in major telecommunications companies is lacking.

“So this may be part of a brand building effort,” said McNeish, noting blue is a colour often associated with trust.

“Politicians wear blue suits a lot because, unconsciously, we regard that as trustworthy.”

In the U.S., Tiffany has trademarked its own shade of blue, a light medium robin egg colour, since 1998. Other common examples of colours tied to particular brands include Barbie’s iconic pink, which is experiencing a renaissance of sorts amid the Barbie movie’s promotional campaign, along with Cadbury’s purple, said Jennifer McKay, an intellectual property lawyer at Dentons.

McKay said that unlike in Canada, where most trademark applications go unopposed, colour wars have erupted in other judications where “companies have really tried hard to claim a monopoly on certain colours.”

“If you’ve been using a mark for many years and the public does view it as pointing to a single source of goods and services, then you probably will be able to get a registration as long as there are no confusing third party marks out there,” she said.

“Tiffany probably wouldn’t be too excited if a third-party jewellery company started using a similar colour and they want to be able to enforce their trademark registration against that third party.”

Trademark registrations are limited to specific goods and services outlined when a company files its application, but McKay said it’s not always black and white.

“If you wanted to enforce it against a third party, you’re not specifically limited to the goods and services in your registration, but any potentially confusing goods or services,” she said.

McKay said a hypothetical company that trademarked purple for its recreational water vehicles may have a case to enforce its registration if a rival manufacturer started making motorcycles in the same shade.

“There’s lots of grey areas,” she said.