So I was flipping through a new JC Penney catalog that I just received, and came upon this sweater. If you put your cursor over the color choices, it will tell you what the color is. Check out the name for the color that is the fourth from the left.

http://www4.jcpenney.com/...mCatId=eob

I can feel a lawsuit coming on.

That is so utterly random.



He'll have his lawyers RIGHT ON IT!!!!

psychodelicide said:

Oh, cool. Oh well.

Nothinbutjoy said:

Yuuuuup! I could not believe it when I saw it. I was like, "WTF, are they serious? They don't know Prince and how he's so protective of anything that is even remotely his."

Flowers2 said:

But if Prince has any say on it, the color name will be changed, pronto!

rubymoon53 said:

psychodelicide said:

They should pre-emptively change it to "Purple Koolaid"




[Edited 11/13/08 20:02pm]

Nothinbutjoy said:

psychodelicide said:

Yeah they can call it Darling Nikki instead

HAH! Betcha Penny's is going to yank that "color" description right off that website by tamarra!

So when is your order scheduled to arrive...

DigMeNow said:

LizaWoman08 said:

CherrieMoonKisses said:

I'll bet you're right about that. As soon as Prince finds out about this, he is gonna sic his laywers on JC Penney's.

rubymoon53 said:

Hee hee! Actually, I didn't order the sweater, since I have so many already. lol: But I know of a couple of orgers who probably will buy that sweater in that color, just because of the name of it.

carlcranshaw said:

You know, you make an excellent point there. I wonder if America ever took legal action against Prince for using the words "Purple Rain" in a movie/song?

psychodelicide said:

Ohh geez

You can't sue anyone over a simple phrase like Purple Rain. Purple is a color... Rain is... well... rain. Thousands of songs re-use simple phrases again and again. There are only so many words in the English language. it has to be more substantial than that to even consider a case.

as far as the color of the clothes. If they want to call a color Purple Rain... they can. Prince could only have a beef if he already gotten legal rights to a particular sgade of purple he called Purple Rain.

And why do most of you assume these major corporations haven't already dotted their 'I's and crossed their 'T's over this stuff? It may well be Prince is receiving payment for this shade of Purple being called Purple Rain due to whatever legal wrangling was applicable.

Hell, I'm going buy one just so I can sell it in 10 years on EBAY

BigDaddyHQ said:

Well, not everybody is informed about this matter as you seem to be. The condescending tone of your post is not necessary.

mzsadii said:

I'll buy it 4 my collection.

that aint the only thing he wont like

BigDaddyHQ said:

actually you can trademark a phrase. And Prince had trademarked the phrase "Purple Rain" for use on apparel among other things

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bi...uq543j.2.5

If the sweater said "Purple Rain" on it, there would be a problem. I don't believe it being the name of a color will actually infringe in his trademark, but if it did, he'd certainly have to send a cease and desist letter to JC Penny to protect his trademark. Once you stop actively protecting it, you run the risk of losing it.

I've learned a lot about trademark law since staring my custom t-shirt and apparel business - http://designer.inktastic.com/ - One thing I did was create a bunch of baby clothes with baby's names to draw traffic. I used the list of most popular names. Turns out people name their baby's with names like Chanel, which is trademarked for use on apparel, so we can't promote personalized clothes for baby's with that name.

Why were you shopping there?

Prince is not the first person to come up with the phrase 'Purple Rain' and there's nothing he can do about it.
[Edited 11/14/08 5:15am]

psychodelicide said:

Don't mean to sound condecending... just speaking straight forward.

After the past couple of years and 2000 threads about Prince with his potential and actual legal concerns all involving Copyrights, Trademarks, etc..... I assume by now that the average Prince fan who post here should have at the very least a basic understanding about some of this stuff. Yet we'll likely get another 2000 threads with people still in the dark and sounding clueless about these things.

alandail:

Thats not quite the same thing as I was refering to. As I eluded to... he can have legal rights... ie he could have Trademarked the name Purple Rain as a 'color' or if you will... a brand name of clothing..etc. This would give him rights over any usage of the term Purple Rain as it relates to similiar products and/or services. However... it may not offer any rights to dis-similar products or services. There are guidelines regarding this... and more than I'm going to put here. It is most likely if he has Trademarked the term Purple Rain... because consumers identifies that term to him... that any usage of that name, as a product or service, would have likely had to be cleared first legally. But not definitively.

.
However, that is not the same as a copyright to lyrics of a song... or even a song's title. Purple and rain even in combination are too common words and cannot be copyright protected as a phrase. Only in the sense if some one wrote "I only wanted 2 see u laughing in the purple rain"..... that would be a significant usage including the term Purple Rain and could potentially get someone sued.

The Org. You gotta love it. They're arguing over a fucking jumper now.

boo i hate it