[lolinder]

Pantone isn't copyrighting the colors, they're copyrighting the collection. It's similar to copyrighting a map: you're not claiming that all representations of this part of the world now belong to you, you're claiming that this representation belongs to you.

It does seem like Adobe could have mapped the colors in existing files to a useful hex code instead of blacking them all out.

[TAForObvReasons]

The issue is that map from "named colors" to "useful colors" is sufficiently protected that approximations could run afoul of whatever agreement Adobe and Pantone have in place.

[lolinder]

Most likely, yes. There's a non-trivial amount of work that goes into ensuring that colors show up correctly in every medium, and Pantone will absolutely want to prevent other people from copying the mappings that they spent time and money developing. As OP said, though, that doesn't make them the bad guys. Adobe is the one who failed to take care of their customers.