Beauty brand glossier granted pink packaging trade mark
A year and a half after New York-based beauty brand, Glossier, applied to register it’s ‘millennial pink’ product packaging, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on December 15th granted them registration for ‘the colour pink as applied to the inner surface of portions of boxes that contrast with the colour of the rest of the boxes’, where size and shape of the box constitutes no part of the mark.
This aspect of contrast within the registration was amended following refusal from the USPTO for their original application seeking to register the colour pink generally as a feature displayed on boxes. This mirrors Louboutin’s colour trade mark achieved in 2011, amended also so that protection covered a red sole merely when contrasted against another colour. However, Glossier’s registration does not, unlike Louboutin, specify a Pantone shade.
The beauty brand, although less than seven years old, claims they have acquired distinctiveness of the pink hued boxes through featuring the packaging heavily in advertising and indicated origin from a single source, beyond mere decoration and functionality. Furthermore, as the brand trades predominantly via online shopping, they claim that the packaging and boxes play a key part in their brand association, and consumers when sharing photos of the cosmetic products, also make a point generally of sharing images of their ‘pink box’.
The reliance of social media advertising in establishing distinctiveness is a strong indication of how companies are expanding and reinforcing brand awareness.
By Ellie King, student from Southampton Solent Univeristy
