See a pink bag in a Mexican shopping center and you think of one department store. See a particular shade of turquoise and you think of a jeweller. So can a colour be owned?
The short answer: yes, with conditions
The Federal Law for the Protection of Industrial Property allows the registration of colours as trademarks, but not a colour in the abstract. What is registrable is a specific shade, identified by an internationally recognized code such as Pantone, applied to specified goods or services.
A single colour with no shape, claimed generally, is refused. Nobody gets to remove "red" from the market.
The real hurdle: acquired distinctiveness
Colours are not inherently distinctive. Consumers do not naturally read a colour as an indication of commercial origin. To register one, you generally have to prove that through sustained and exclusive use, the public has come to associate that shade with you and nobody else.
That means evidence: years of consistent use, advertising spend, market surveys, sales figures, press coverage. It is one of the more demanding files in trademark practice.
What is easier and usually enough
Registering the colour combined with a shape, a pattern or your logo. That is inherently distinctive, far cheaper, and covers most commercial situations. Use the single-colour route only when the shade genuinely carries the brand on its own.
If colour is central to your identity, we can advise on which route is realistic for your evidence base.
How a colour gets registered
A single colour in the abstract is not distinctive, and a sign that lacks distinctiveness is refused under article 173 of the Mexican Industrial Property Law. What can be registered is a colour applied in a defined way: a specific shade, identified by its code, on a specific element of a specific product, for specific goods.
The practical requirement is evidence that the public already associates that colour with you rather than with the category. That evidence is built over years of consistent use, which is why these registrations belong to brands that never varied the shade.
And once granted it has to be held: the declaration of real and effective use falls at the third anniversary and protection survives only for the goods or services declared (article 233). A colour registration is among the hardest to obtain and the easiest to lose by inattention.