DESIGNATION OF TRADEMARKS THAT ARE COLOR: PROBLEMS OF FORENSIC THEORY AND PRACTICE ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Abstract

Annotation. The publication is devoted to the study of the problems of theory and practice of expert research of trademarks that are color. The origin of color as a phenomenon of culture, religion, semantics, semiotics, heraldry, vocabulary, physics, chemistry, painting, fashion, etc. is analyzed. It is noted that in previous centuries, color was defined even as a special substance, since the time of Aristotle – as a kind of light, and later as a sensation caused by light falling on a certain object, perceived by the eye and transmitted to the human brain. The definition of color as a result of light dispersion, through the discovery of the chromatic scale – spectrum by I. Newton in the XVII century, became an important milestone in the development of world science and technology. The genesis of the primary colors – red, blue, yellow and green – is analyzed on the basis of the cycle of works of the French M. Pastoureau devoted to the history of color. The changes in their sacred-religious, heraldic, cultural, artistic, linguistic and everyday meaning and interpretations of different peoples and societies at different stages of their development are analyzed. The conclusion is substantiated that the same colors in Europe, America and other continents and regions have gained, lost and revived their popularity among people due to many factors: origin and availability of substances that create color; the purpose of a particular color in the religious worldview of a person; semiotic and heraldic meaning of color; preference of color by aristocracy, intellectuals or artists, its role in cultural and artistic life; place in the chromatic system (spectrum); popularity of use in everyday life, clothing, advertising, etc. None of the colors today has a single and unchanged meaning and significance since its inception. The article summarizes and systematizes the international (Singapore Treaty, Paris Convention, etc.) and national legal acts that regulate the protection of trademarks that are colors or combinations of colors, as well as the peculiarities of their registration in Ukraine. The analysis of the practice of decisions of the Appeals Chamber of the State Enterprise «Ukrainian Intellectual Property Institute» regarding the registration of a mark that is a color or combination of colors is carried out. The relevant methodological and methodological approaches of the Appeals Chamber regarding the acquisition of distinctiveness by a particular color are systematized.