Actually, that's exactly how the world works. Design patents and trade dress protection can indeed protect the look of a product, even a color from use by comp

Actually, that's exactly how the world works. Design patents and trade dress protection can indeed protect the look of a product, even a color from use by competitors, e.g. Tiffany's defends its "robin's egg blue" color used to sell jewelry: http://www.scribd.com/doc/102788/tiffany-v-ebay-III http://www.scribd.com/doc/102788/tiffany-v-ebay-III