Colors can be trademarked in conjunction with certain services. Does this applies to UIs of computer programs as well?
To answer your unspoken question, yes, someone could have trademarked the yellow paint and stopped the madness right then and there.
Sure. Why would a computer UI be an exception? Law applies to computer interfaces the same way as it does to other things.
Trademarking colors is difficult though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_trade_markTldr: you can do it, but you have to argue real well that the color is distictive and associated exclusively with your brand.
An example of a trademarked color is ups brown
I think UIs are more typically patented if they do something unique.
I’m pretty sure we know there are some trademarked UI elements though—I’d be surprised if the start button wasn’t a Microsoft trademark at least when they launched windows 95
Some article I saw about suing Tesla for using a color scheme reminiscent of Blade Runner 2049.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/blade-runner-2049-producers-sue-elon-musk-tesla-warner-bros-discovery-1.7359260
