Texas court rules AT&T has to choose a new color scheme for its budget prepaid brand
Following an extensive suit culminating in a three-day hearing, T-Mobile has won a court case finding that AT&T’s prepaid brand Aio Wireless was using colors too similar to T-Mobile’s in its branding. The lawsuit, which sparked up quickly after Aio Wireless launched, claimed that AT&T specifically used a color it calls “plum” that was very close to T-Mobile’s trademark magenta color specifically to confuse customers.
A federal court in Texas has now ordered AT&T to stop using its current “plum” color scheme, specifically “magenta or similar colors,” for the prepaid brand in marketing, advertising, stores, web sites and social media. It’s not clear at this time what color scheme AT&T will choose to switch to, or if it will appeal the decision — the wording of the ruling doesn’t ban complete use of the colors, but only specific shades in “large blocks.”
T-Mobile states that “Wireless customers identify T-Mobile with magenta,” and that this ruling reaffirms that position. This isn’t the first time T-Mobile has had to defend its specific color use against other entities, but this can be a big speed bump and cost assessed to AT&T which is likely trying to run Aio Wireless on generally tight margins.
Source: T-Mobile