New trademark standard set by FoCo company’s court win

FORT COLLINS — Companies across the nation have a new set of rules regarding use of colors in their branding, thanks to a trademark case won this year by a longtime Fort Collins manufacturer.

The opinion issued April 8 in Washington by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit “changes the United States Trademark Office’s interpretation and implementation of trademark law with respect to marks that consist of colors,” said William Cochran, an attorney with Fort Collins-based intellectual-property law firm Cochran, Freund & Young LLC. “The opinion by the federal circuit will guide courts in…