Meta, Painting the town magenta
By Ryan Block 
posted April 1st 2008 12:31PM
posted April 1st 2008 12:31PM
P.S. -In a related side note, our old pals at Phone Scoop pinged us earlier this morning to let us know they've gone magenta for the day in an act of solidarity. Much love, Phone Scoop! Oh, and now so did Phone Arena, Fitch, and GearBits! Also, myself and some other eds are in on the action.
You are absolutely correct (that I don't know any Jews or Germans...well..German nationals anyway). I still thought it was funny.
Ramooooooone - get this douche a book on self help for control freaks.
sweet guys, this is awesome!
stick it to the man!
Like I said yesterday, this whole contrived T-Mobile incident by Engadget is just to get PR and try to increase market share. At the same time, Engadget, ur trying to blackmail Deutsche Telekom, 'cause if they complain 2 loud, u'll try to unleash the masses against them. Hey, who's the new boss man, now? Engadget's the new boss. Just like the old boss...Hey, Engadget dudes, why not concentrate on site content instead of cheap childish PR trixs? Hey, I got an idea, let's start a website named Engadgit.com (with an "i"). Hmmm, wonder if anyone will mind? Peace, love.
QUICK! Trademark the letter T!!!
...
then shove it up their asses... sideways
+1 for sure. you guys are awesome. don't let them tell you off. that trademark is only viable w/ competing companies and you guys whether engadget or engadget mobile do not compete as such. Their demands or threats have no gravity and are refutable. GO Engagdet!!!
I disapprove. I'm getting seizures with this hot pink all over my screen. As the Rolling Stones said it, "Paint it black!"
Hilarious! Specially love the Engadge...T-mobile logo! Rock on!
great....I can browse the latest tech news and get in touch with my feminine side simultaneously. Don't wanna be a party pooper but I would've nixed the color from the git-go.
this is so badASS!
god i love engadget!
I recently died my hair this colour, you can have the dedication if you like :-)
SOLIDARITY!!!!!!!
Sounds like some good ol marketing here. And the day always plays a part on this day. Cant believe anything on april fools day. Engadget had to do something. No? Dont mean to be a sceptic.
My favorite part about all this is the emergence of the inevitable know-it-alls who declare all those in support of engadget to be ignorant and part of the masses, as they display their superiority through condescending statements and defensive whining. They note that OF COURSE it's perfectly normal for a tech company to send disagreeable, indirectly threatening, legal letters to a company in a completely different business which provides a service usually helpful to said tech company.
There are always a few in every group.
holy crap.. I thought this was myTmobile.com ... I was putting in my credit card info to pay my bills.
haha geekologie is in on it too.
Under United States copyright law, the color itself cannot be copyrighted, but the combination of colors as a recognizable brand trade dress is.
In Chevron Chemical Co., v. Voluntary Purchasing Groups, Inc., 659 F.2d 695 (5th Cir. 1981), the court did decide against VPG for trade dress infringements.
VPG was selling lawn and garden products under the "Hi-Yield" trademark, using a red and yellow trade dress color scheme that was similar to Chevron's Ortho brand. Plus, VPG only advertised through point of sale displays, which were also similar to Ortho's.
So could T-Mobile sue Engadget for trade dress infringement? Sure. Would it be worth it? Probably not. Although, the change to this new scheme with the new "engadgeT-Mobile" logo wouldn't help.
Buuuuuuuut, considering this came out on April 1st, it is probably just a little prank to play on everyone, with the help from a couple other websites. Kudos for the effort though.
Haha, i'll show my support, and put a little magenta on my website:
www.dt.net.nz
After I applied some CSS, the whole admin section went magenta too! xD
Why does T-mobile sound like a Kindergardener fighting over who gets the pink crayon from the color box?
Purple is the color of royalty.
When purple was first created as a colored dye it was the most expensive dye to make. At that time only royalty could afford it....thus, it became the color of royalty!
word~ what a bitch slap!!
I love the color magenta, reminds of "Magenta" from "Blues Clues" :)
OMG, i just realized both dogs are the color of Engadget!!! What a coincidence!!!
Well t-mobile would love all the free advertising
Now let me get this right. If I sign away my life for 2 years with you I get a free phone and 200 min a month for $59.99?
Touché! Engadget is indeed the color awesome.
Hey there, full support for engadget from germany! Somehow it feels like there is no magenta left in the world because the whole color is property of Deutsche Telekom. Even my printer prints gray from now on... no formerly-known-as-magenta-color is allowed to touch paper.
Anyway: Nice colors @ Engadget :-)
hell yes, good job engadget!
you are all so smart.
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/images/hehe/fuckedup/arguing_over_internet.jpg
The 800-pound gorilla of 'prior art' regarding the use of magenta with or without graphic elements has to be the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and their predececessor, the Atomic Energy Commission.
See 10 CFR 835.601
http://frwebgate4.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate.cgi?WAISdocID=1220822453+1+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve
WELL DONE, f t-mobile and that bullshit.
Love it! Hilarious!! How do you patent a color? Idiots!
FREE MAGENTA!!!
http://www.freemagenta.nl/
Where do I sign in so I can view and pay my T-Mobile bill? I don't want my payment to be late and have my service interrupted!
Seriously - your revamped logo made my day. Thanks for the laugh. (stick together!) :)
greetz from germany: http://www.cutterpool.de/
chris
Fight the power!
Definitely not an April Fools (if anyone's still doubting this); I work for a major retailer and we got one as well, objecting to our maroon design. So, if you are vaguely involved with mobile phones and your chosen base colour contains red Deutsche Telekom are on to you!
gizmodo going magenda anytime soon?
Talk about gettin a magenta wallpaper in, a tweak of the logo and a splash of AT&T's "Talk all you want for $99" Ad in that !! Funny mixture. Engadget you've got some people in DT fuming !!!!
Looong time reader but first time commenting. I've recently launched my Thai language tech news blog and have gone magenta too in support.
Someone should direct DT and T-Mo towards Microsoft for their excessive use of magenta in the Entourage logo and splash screen.... thats a fight i'd like to see!
I almost fell over laughing the first time I read the disclaimer at the bottom of a T-Mobile ad stating that the color magenta was a registered trademark of T-Mobile.
What are they going to do next go after kindergarteners who pick up the wrong crayon and draw mommy talking on a cell phone? Maybe they'll go after the crayon company for conspiracy too?
I'm in on this too. How lame.
erichthewebguy.com
If you've ever seen one of Deutsche Telekomm's magenta public phone booths in Germany, you would know for sure that NO ONE in their right mind would ever want to imitate that color!
Yeah, because nothing enhances your reputation as a responsible journalist more than acting like a petulant child.
funny - i don't remember reading anywhere in the article that he wished to "enhance his reputation as a responsible journalist" by doing this
Phantastic, finally the letters of DT concearning the color magenta are a global phenomenon. In Germany any company, blog or website or... that uses the color magenta in its branding in the context of mobile, telco or online topics has gotten a letter like you.
Nobody ever stood up like you. Let's see how long you it will take to bring the color down. You would be the first ever to be able to keep the color magenta. Well, to be honest only the second. There is a small telephone dealership in Bonn that used the color before DT started branding magenta. They were allowed to keep magenta in their brand within a mobile or online context.
My full support to you guys: http://www.christiancoquet.com/?p=150
Magenta for all:
http://finkployd.blogger.de/
Just testing out my profile
Not that I ever had any intentions of switching to T-Mobile, but I damn sure wouldn't after this hot mess. If I worked for Douche Telekom, I'd probably quit, while blushing several shades of magenta.