Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co.

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that a color may be a trademark of a particular product, in part because there are so many other options in the spectrum
• holding that the existence of other, equally usable colors is relevant to whether a particular color is functional
• holding that the existence of other, equally usable colors is relevant to whether a particular color is functional
• holding that “no special legal rule prevents color alone from serving as a trademark” when color “meet[s] ordinary legal trademark requirements.”
• noting that a product feature is functional “if exclusive use of a feature would put competitors at a significant non-reputation-related disadvantage”
• noting that the “noble instinct for giving the right touch of beauty to common and necessary things” constitutes a nontrademark function

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).