T-Mobile recently has been taking quite the interest in attacking AT&T. The company throwing ads left and right against AT&T such as their device upgrade program, network, amongst other things. This week however, T-Mobile has stepped up their attack on AT&T to a whole new level. While this may seem amusing to some folks, T-Mobile thinks otherwise.
How often do consumers confuse colors between carriers, exactly? Well, here’s something for you.
According to a new report from AllThingsD, T-Mobile is suing AT&T’s subsidiary company, Aio Wireless. What is the reason exactly? Apparently, T-Mobile thinks that Aio Wireless has committed “trademark infringement and unfair business practices by using a hue too similar to the magenta used by T-Mobile.”
Here is what AllThingsD said in their report:
“In early 2013, T-Mobile publicly disclosed plans to compete against the incumbent telecommunications providers in a new way: by offering telecommunications services without the need for consumers to enter into a two-year or annual service contract,” T-Mobile said in its suit. “The dominant telecommunications provider, AT&T, responded by setting up a wholly owned subsidiary, Aio, which — out of all of the colors in the universe — chose magenta to begin promoting no-contract wireless communications services in direct competition with T-Mobile. AT&T’s subsidiary’s use of magenta to attract T-Mobile customers is likely to dilute T-Mobile’s famous magenta color trademark, and to create initial interest confusion as to the source or affiliation of AT&T’s subsidiary’s business.”
Should T-Mobile successfully win this suit against Aio Wireless, the company is asking for the AT&T subsidiary to change its color use to something else other than Magenta, and to also fork over profits that it has wrongfully earned.
The rivalry between AT&T and T-Mobile seems to be heating up even more. Moving from attacking ads to in court suits, what does this remind us of exactly? That’s right, the frenemies Samsung and Apple.
