Admittedly, London's dwindling fleet of old-fashioned double-decker red Routemaster buses, like the black taxis and old red telephone boxes, are a distinctive and attractive feature of the city's landscape.

ECONOMIST: Why mourn creaky old buses when you can welcome new ones

Google added a feature to its U.S. search engine in April 2010 that displays a picture of a red telephone and the phone number for the lifeline when people are searching for suicide-related topics.

CNN: Mark Milian,

For the occasional phone call, we found classic red British telephone booths and assembled three of them along one wall.

FORBES: Connect

Another selling point is the absence of the red tape usually involved in plugging in to Italy's telephone system, whether fixed or cellular.

ECONOMIST: Keeping in touch

In prison the unloved Erich Mielke was said to be cheered up when he was provided with a disconnected red telephone with which he could talk to imaginary agents.

ECONOMIST: Erich Mielke

No, not as in the sense of the title to this blog, but in the sense that if someone patents a blue telephone you cannot then gain a further patent for a red one.

FORBES: Is The Patent System Broken? Well, Amazon's Just Patented The Sale Of Second Hand Goods