Lets think about a few famous things that are pink.  What comes to mind (that we can print here)?  Here's my list.
 
1. Pink Floyd
2. Pink Panther
3. Cotton Candy
4. Victoria's Secret
5. Pepto Bismol
6. Bazooka Gum
7. Pink Lemonade
8. Cadillacs (Elvis and Mary Kay)
9. The Pink Flamingo
10. Pink Pearl pencil erasers

The Artist Pink and Metalworking Fluid didn't make my top ten, but when I see a pink metalworking fluid, I will tell you now, I'm thinking it's a Cimcool MWF.  When I see a brown and smelly metalworking fluid, a lot of companies come to mind, but pink - that's Milacron - Cimcool, right?  Maybe not, it turns out.

On November 16, 2010, Milacron received a trademark registration from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for the color pink for metalworking fluids ("industrial fluids used in metalworking"  Reg. No. 3877130).

Pink is apparently a litigious color, and most of the members of my list, including the Panther, have had their day in Court.  Milacron isn't even the first company to get a Federal Registration for the color pink as their product color.  Owens-Corning was granted a trademark on the color pink in In re Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., 774 F.2d 1116 (Fed. Cir. 1985). 

Now Milacron will have theirs (again) as Plaintiff's this time around.  Earlier this month, Milacron filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, naming Oklahoma-based Stough Tool Sales as the Defendant in a trademark infringement case.  Apparently there is a bit of history between these companies that runs deeper than the color itself. 

Milacron is asserting trademarks 3,460,430 (pink drums),  3,877,130 (fluid color), and 3,850,103 (mwf additives and concentrate).  Milacron states in the complaint that they have been pink since the 1940's.

Now this part is just too funny; I don't know what Oklahoma family lawyer advised Stough Tools that coloring their product pink was no problem at all, but they must have found a new attorney since then.  Exhibit D of the Complaint shows a page from the StoughCool website with two pictures.  One of them has a pinker than pink fluid flowing everywhere.  It looks more like Pepto Bismol than it does any Milacron fluid I ever saw.  Seriously - that should be the defense.  It might be the best one they have.  We are way pinker than your pink.  A quick visit to the same page today, and that pink picture has magically disappearred. 

Exhibit E had another picture of pink fluid from the Coolant Service page of the StroughCool website.  Same story, magically gone.  Same with Exhibit F.  So the writing is on the wall.  If you must have a pink metalworking fluid, even if you just want to show your support in the battle against breast cancer, you're going to need to buy it from Milacron.  That's my bet.  I'm also betting that the color of the fluid won't matter too much to anybody that already likes buying from Strough Tool Sales.  Then again, they are in Oklahoma...