Re: reverse engineering a color?

From: <ArborLaw[_at_]aol.com>
Date: Fri, 18 Oct 1996 11:56:41 -0400

David Dailey writes:
>
> The hardware store, part of a regional chain, has a wonderful
> gadget: a "color-analyzer." The customer brings in a sample of
> the paint they want to match, the machine takes a picture, and
> then "reverse-engineers" the mixing of pigments to produce a
> match. [...] It is not too different, it seems, from the
> protection of a small set of parameters in software: a paint
> color can be seen as an n-tuple consisting of ratios of n
> various primary pigments, though perhaps the set of basic
> primaries varies from company to company. I gather that with
> parameters in software, some are arguing for copyright status.
> If so, why not for colors too? and would the proposed reverse
> engineering statutes extend to parameter sets?

There are some interesting issues here, if only because it seems like the frontiers of intellectual property protection are being asked to expand to include claims for things like case citation numbers (an address, really) and parametric data required for interoperability (the Compaq case).

I don't think color sampling by a paint store infringes any trademark right in the color, because trademark rights in the use of a single color only exist with reference to the goods or services with which the color is associated. However, the sleeper issue is what you call the color after you have made it. If you call it, for example, "Pantone #35431", without license to do so, you have possibly infringed the registered Pantone color-matching system.

What, if anything, you are reverse engineering in this context, is a pigment formula. Reproducing what appears to be the same color in another medium (light, RGB monitor, glossy vs matte surface, still photography, transparencies) is an entirely different question.

Carol Shepherd
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==--====-==-=-=-==--=--====--=-=-=-====---===-=-=-====---===---= Received on Fri Oct 18 1996 - 15:59:40 GMT