A federal court in Texas ruled in favor of T-Mobile after the carrier sued AT&T's prepaid subsidiary AIO Wireless for using T-Mo's popular magenta hue in its logo.
T-Mobile, the fourth largest wireless carrier in the U.S., is not done giving nightmares to its biggest rival AT&T. It may have sounded silly at first, but T-Mobile won a lawsuit against AT&T's prepaid subsidiary, AIO Wireless, for using a shade similar to that of T-Mo's magenta color. AIO Wireless was charged with trademark infringement and unfair business practices when it was launched in August, last year.
T-Mobile accused AIO Wireless of using a similar shade to its popular magenta hue as a deliberate attempt to trick customers into buying its wireless plans without contracts. Luckily, the U.S. court sided with T-Mobile and only after three hearings, the judge from the Southern District of Texas, Lee Rosenthal, ordered AIO Wireless to stop using the magenta or any similar color in its marketing and advertising materials.
T-Mobile, of course, shared the news through its official blog post, Saturday. "T-Mobile is very pleased that the federal court in Texas has ordered AIO Wireless, a subsidiary of AT&T, to stop infringing T-Mobile's magenta trademark," the press release read. "The court agreed with us that AIO can't continue infringing T-Mobile's magenta mark by using large blocks of what it has called "plum," and told AIO to stop using magenta or similar colors in all of its marketing and advertising, including stores, web sites and social media."
AIO's spokeswoman Kathy Van Buskirk had said at the time when T-Mobile filed a lawsuit against the prepaid company in August that T-Mobile needed "an art lesson." The flamboyant CEO John Legere posted a picture of a crayon box with magenta colored pencils in it and said "Here is the Crayon box that @ATT must have been using :)"
Legere posted another tweet following the victory against AIO Wireless.
Young bullies steal lunch money, old bullies steal brand colors, right #Randall? Too bad we fight for our brand color https://t.co/8wt2Eb7vpV
- John Legere (@JohnLegere) February 8, 2014
