T-Mobile: April's Fool or April Fool's?

"When will they ever learn..." - Pete Seeger

This is so ludicrous that it wouldn't surprise me if it were an April Fool's joke (and if so, wouldn't it be cool if it were THE BRAND doing the fooling, as opposed to Engadget), but at the same time it doesn't surprise me that it's NOT a joke.

So as it turns out, apparently Deutsche Telekom/T-Mobile thinks it owns the color "magenta" and sent this nasty notice to the folks over at Engadget Mobile (page 1; page 2)

Mashable makes a great point asking whether and/or how T-Mobile thought Engadget would react (as in did you not see this coming?) The answer is they weren't thinking or didn't think (b/c it just wasn't aware of this little thing called social media and specifically, the blog-o-sphere)

Engadget has since "gone magenta" as an act of protest. I think I will do the same with my Twitter and Facebook profiles.

On a related note, T-Mobile has also issued a C+D to the makers of Blue's Clues, demanding that Blue's friend Magenta be "permanently erased"...OR ELSE!!!

Hat tip to Len Kendall