It’s T-Mobile’s color wheel — we’re all just living in it.

We were reminded of this rather drab reality when the mobile company, perhaps best known for its wild-eyed and soon-to-be former CEO, John Legere, issued a rather odd proclamation: Stay the fuck away from magenta. You know, that color which falls somewhere between purple and pink. 

So reports NPR, which notes that T-Mobile holds a trademark on the purple-pinkish color and is not afraid to threaten legal action against anyone who might stoop so low as to think they, too, could help themselves to that particular crayon from Mother Nature’s box.

Specifically, this past summer, lawyers from T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, reportedly hit up Daniel Schreiber, whom NPR notes is the CEO of an insurance company by the name of Lemonade, and told him that his company’s branding violated its trademark. Again, the supposed trademark in question is on the color magenta — officially known as Pantone Rhodamine Red U.

We reached out to T-Mobile in an attempt to confirm the details of NPR’s reporting, as well as to determine what other companies T-Mobile has frightened off from this particular hue, but received no response as of press time. 

Notably, this isn’t the first time that the company, which not too long ago thought it was somehow a sensible idea to associate its coverage plans with the sexual practice of BDSM, made a legal claim on magenta and its variants. According to the Washington Post, back in 2014, a judge ruled in favor of T-Mobile regarding AT&T’s use of the color plum. It was too close to magenta, you see, and AT&T had to cease using it immediately. 

And T-Mobile wasn’t stopping there.

“… T-Mobile’s definition of magenta appears to have expanded beyond its original trademark,” the Post noted at the time. Adding that, “rather than owning a specific shade of pink, the company is now claiming nearby colors, as well.”

So watch your back fans of fuchsia, plum, and even rose — T-Mobile’s coming for you.  

https://bit.ly/2KXg6c2

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