Sounds ridiculous to me. Find another paint store.

If you have a Menards in your city, try them. When I was ready to select my colors, they said I could pick from any color chips they had on display. They didn't even ask at that point if I was looking for interior or exterior. Took lots of chips home and in fact I had selected from two different brands. But no problems.

Copywrited paint colors??

Maddie,

What brand were the colors you chose and what brand were you trying to have made? Sounds screwy to me.
Molly~

I was in HD and overheard the paint counter person say the same thing to a gentleman who was requesting a certain color...I don't know if it's the same siatuation, since no mention was made regarding "copyrighting" of the color, but I suspect it's one in the same.

It was at Lowes... I had to pull the chips to look... since I honestly never paid much attention to which kiosk I got them off since I never thought there was an issue. The colors I picked came from The Seaside Retreat Collection by American Traditions. The paint is made my Valspar. Both paints are made by the same company.. I am going to dig further since this really makes no sense to me and there is NOT a perfect match for these colors in their other lines of paint. The whole thing gives me a rash.

Maddiemom

take the paint chip, cut off the part that identifies the color, and take it to a sherwin williams or a benjamin moore store, and have them match the color. No one needs to know where you got the color from, just that you want to match it.

I have no clue- but perhaps the color tile is protected since it has a copmpany name associated with it. Maybe if you cut out the color you want from the tile (with no numbers or names on it) and tell them you want that color they could do it. Ace hardware has never given us a problem, but I have always chosen from colors they had in the store.

Sometimes you can't get a color in exterior because the pigments it requires aren't UV stable, but COPYRIGHTED colors?

Cut the name off and take it to another store.

Some of those designer brands(Martha Stewart is one I think) You can't even use the paint chips. They are made so paint sampling machines can't read them properly. At that is what I have heard.

I took in my ICI paint chip card to my BM dealer this past weekend and said, sorry but you don't make the exact shade I want, this is what I want. They said who makes it? I said ICI and gave them the card--they used the code from the paint chip and voila, I had BM paint with the ICI color.

(The ICI store is much harder to get to, which is why I used BM) FWIW, BM spattered more than the ICI/EK paint I had used on the last room so I'll do ICI again.

Robin

Get yourself to a print shop, ask to borrow their Pantone book, match the chip to the Pantone color, then have the paint store mix a Pantone color for you. They SHOULD be able to mix it by number.

i.e. Pantone 185 is a darkish red.

Hope this helps.

I don't know if Lowes is any better with mixing paints than Home Depot, my guess is that they are about the same. I would not have a custom color mixed there and would absolutely not do so if you will need to go back later for another few gallons. My mom used HD once and never got the same color. I know there are likely to be variations across cans, but these were pretty big variations. And I am a bit of a paint snob, so I wouldn't buy there anyway. It's too much work to paint to use anything that won't last for many years.

Any chance you could mix it yourself? I used information I remembered from a art class I took about 35 years ago!

I bought 5 gallon buckets of white paint, then quart cans of the various colors I wanted. I had them mix the quarts a much darker color than I wanted. Then I mixed my own custom colors. It's really very easy to do. I practiced with small batches using a eye dropper to mix the colors. When I got the color I wanted I increased the ratio to mix enough to complete the project. Be sure to write down your color formula so you can match it later if needed.

I have 7 foot ceilings so I mixed a bit of blue into my white ceilings to give the alusion of the sky outside. I also made the wall paint lighter near the ceiling and a bit darker near the floor. It looks like a solid color on the wall, but the alusion of higher ceilings is wonderful.

Go to a different paint store! A small local one preferably. I had two Restoration HW paint swatches that I wanted to match and my local paint store had the formula for one of the colors and the other color, which they didn't have the formula for, had to be matched. So they took the time to help me find a matching BM color (they didn't just point me over to a wall of a gazillion swatches and tell me to pick one, they did it for me!) and mixed up a sample (which BTW, matched exactly!). I may have paid a few more cents at the small store vs. HD/Lowes, but to me, it was so worth it to have that personalized help! You don't get that at HD! Especially not on a weekend!

I color match all the time to all kinds of things. Fabric, wallpaper, paint samples that I mixed up myself (when trying to get a shade just a bit lighter or darker than what I had.) I can't imagine why you wouldn't be able to color match the color that you want. How do they know where it's from?

As far as getting more gallons of it later just be sure and keep the color mixture that they print on the can or on the receipt and get more gallons to that mix, don't color match again.

I choose my colors from chips at one of those large chains then took it to my local hardware store and they mixed it for me. They have Valspar paint which is the paint I wanted and my neighborhood store got the sale.

It's got to be the name of the color, not the color itself that's copyrighted. If that's actually the case, mother nature is due some major royalties.

That's not necessarily true. Some time ago, to a Starbucks barista I quipped, "I wanted to ask the painters (of a neighboring Starbucks that was opening up) to give me their leftovers, since it's the same color as my garage."

"No, way. The paint color is a closely guarded secret and the paint itself is the exclusive property of the company."

"Yeah, but someone could just match it..."

"Single tall?!" he responded, making it clear to me that the paint conversation was OVER and that such sacrilege as matching top-secret Starbucks paint would not be discussed any further.

So, yeah. I'm sure the paint color in question is, indeed, copyrighted by the company that supplies it. But I like Sherwin-Williams for matching a glop, if you have one. They've done right by me........

I guess that's why they say "ask Sherwin-Williams."

If a paint store that can match colors won't take the color off the chip, buy the quart in whatever finish it actually comes in and paint a scrap of wallboard or a spare clapboard or shingle - then tell them you are trying to match that color. They will assume it already came off your house. Make sure you test the color before you buy a zillion gallons.

When I tried to find a color for my house exterior, I walked around a neighborhood with a zillion paint chips and tried to match them to particular houses. Often, the homeowner would come out (wondering why I was up close and personal with their house LOL), and offer me the color number. But one time, someone said it was a custom mix and they wouldn't tell me because they didn't anyone else to have a house that color. Yeah, like pale yellow is such an uncommon color! Geez.

He said " sorry lady.. we can't mix this is exterior" .. did he mean he could not mix as interior paint? or did he mean he did not know how to do it. If he then said it is copyrighted, I think he meant that that color is only used for exterior paint. Walmart would have just gotten as close as they could to the color....flat, satin, eggshell, whatever base you pick.

We get paint chips all over the place and take to WalMart for perfect match and they give us cards with the exact mix and color #s used. Also we have taken to KMart and had them mix colors in Martha Stewart paint...no problems at all.

See the paint panel get together and pick out colors and values and tones and they use them for all decorating needs...makes it easier for them to match and decorate. Each company gives them a name and number and copyright that name and number for their paint. Sunny yellow in one brand may be the same as Bright yellow in another brand.