A Brighton tech company is being sued by T Mobile because its logo uses a similar shade of magenta.
Software firm dataJAR, which is based in Orange Row, was sent a letter by the mobile giant’s parent company Deutsche Telekom (DTAG) earlier this month requiring it to cease using the colour “and closely similar colour shades”.
But dataJAR managing director James Ridsdale said he was standing firm – and that since news broke, he had received support from around the world.
Mr Ridsdale said: “We’re not going to stand for this because it’s unfair. DTAG have trademarked a particular shade of magenta (telemagenta) and dataJAR have a different shade of magenta.
“dataJAR is a software company that manages Macs, iPads, iPhones and AppleTV’s – we do not sell or supply mobile phones.
“Other business owners also think this is ridiculous and are changing their logos to the same colour as ours with the hashtags: #magentagate and #magentatoo. T Mobile can’t sue everyone – dataJAR is trying to fight this but it will prove costly.”
The letter, from DTAG’s law firm Hogan Lovells, says: “We note that your client has made extensive use of the colour magenta (or a colour highly similar to magenta) throughout its website … in relation to services that are highly similar to a number of the services that DTAG provides in the European Union.
“The colour magenta is the core element of DTAG’s corporate identity and one for which it is extremely well-known.
“Our client is concerned that … your client’s use of the colour magenta on its website could lead to confusion on the part of the public.”
DTAG was alerted to dataJAR’s colour scheme and logo when the company applied to trademark it in January. It was notified that there was an objection from DTAG at the end of the consultation period.
A website has been set up by dataJAR explaining what has happened and asking for support.
Tech website The Register tracked down which specific colour DTAG holds the rights for, which is RAL 4010 telemagenta – which in the RGB system for screen displayed colours is RGB 188, 64, 119. Datajar’s style guide calls the colour it’s been asked to stop using pink, and specifies ait as RGB 225, 96, 163.
According to Wikipedia, magenta is an extra-spectral colour, meaning that it is not found in the visible spectrum of light, instead being physiologically and psychologically perceived as the mixture of red and violet/blue light, with the absence of green.
