Are color schemes copyrightable?
<p>For instance the video game World of Warcraft has a color scheme for classes (can be seen at: <a href="https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Class_colors" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Class_colors</a>) and item rarity (white, green, blue, purple and orange).</p>
<p>Does copyright apply in this case?</p>

<p>A &quot;scheme&quot; is likely not protected by copyright. See generally <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/q/87627/46948">In the United States, what is the threshold for &quot;originality&quot; in order to have copyright protection?</a> and <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#102" rel="nofollow noreferrer">17 U.S.C. 102</a> (especially 102(b)).</p>
<p>A &quot;scheme&quot; is not an &quot;original work of authorship&quot;; it's an idea or method of associating certain colors with certain meanings. The United States Copyright Office has said it &quot;cannot register a claim to copyright in color in and of itself or a system for matching pairs and sets of colors&quot; (U.S. Copyright Office, <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/comp3/docs/compendium.pdf#page=80" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>Copyright of U.S. Copyright Office Practices</em>, s. 313.4(K)</a>).</p>
<p><sup>See also <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/6685/can-ups-really-trademark-the-color-brown">this Q &amp; A</a> about trademark in color.</sup></p>

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