Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Rob Myers <rob AT robmyers.org>]

Peter Brink wrote:
> Antoine skrev:
> > Le mardi 13 février 2007 à 21:31 +0000, Rob Myers a écrit :
> > > Mike Linksvayer wrote:
> > >
> > > > Tango uses BY-SA for icons and the base palette is in the public domain.
> > > >
> > > > http://tango.freedesktop.org/Tango_Desktop_Project
> > > Can palettes be copyrighted? Does it make a difference if they are an 
> > > analogue set of samples or as  structured data?
> > Regardless of copyright, at least one colour has been patented: the
> > "International Klein Blue".
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Klein_Blue
> It's not the colour as such that has been patented, its the medium, the 
> pigment itself that has been patented. Since chemical compounds can be 
> patented that is not a strange thing.

I've tried to track down the IKB patent but to no avail. The number 
usually given for the patent doesn't show up in the French patent 
database, and there are no useful entries for Klein or his collaborator. 
In theory, since IKB was a uniquely vivid blue for the time, patenting 
the formula would have had the effect of restricting use of that exact 
blue to Klein.

Cadbury's have claimed a patent on the color purple in the US.

But these aren't copyrights, so they don't touch on CC licensing. Can 
palettes be copyrighted or are they just facts? Pantone claim that you 
can't use their colour definition names, but that seems more likely to 
be to do with trade description law rather than copyright.

- Rob.