Is the Pantone color system an example of a copyrightable color palette, in terms of meeting the threshold of originality?
Copyright around the Pantone system is historically a pretty murky area. According to Pantone themselves,
“published materials of Pantone, are protected by copyright laws and include, for example, graphic presentations, color references, Pantone Colors, Pantone Names, numbers, formulas, and software”. (Clause 4, Pantone EULA)
Aaron Perzanowski researches intellectual and personal property law at the University of Michigan Law School. He says that Pantone has no underlying intellectual property rights when it comes to either individual colors, or the color libraries of which they are a part. “There’s no copyright protection available for individual colors, and the limited trademark rights for specific colors don’t apply here either,” Perzanowski says.
Practically, a US District Court has ruled that, while Pantone cannot copyright a color, they can copyright the “Pantone Color System” that specifically exists to provide print-accurate colors.
There’s a documentary out there about this whole subject and it does indeed come down to exactly this.
Companies/design firms may not like the price that Pantone charges but they also say it’s absolutely worth it to know what color you will get in print.
From my understanding it isn’t the colours themselves that are copyrighted, but rather the system around it. If you happen to accidentally use a colour from the Pantone library without paying them for the privilege, that is allowed. But any system that uses the Pantone names / structure should pay for the rights to use that system.
