Regarding Cecil’s column on Harley-Davidson’s attempt to trademark its sound
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/000915.html
There aren’t many trademarked sounds, the last time I checked there were about 20. I believe that the sound that you used to hear for the Lucas sound system in movie theaters (The THX system) was trademarked.
I also believe that there is one trademarked scent and it is for a type of yarn that is supposed to smell like plumeria.
My question: whence “rice-burner”?
The high-pitched, whiny revv of japanese import motorcycles (and cars, too) lends itself to the joke that the engines were made to burn rice as the fuel instead of petrol. It’s a combination of the tinny sound and national origin of the bikes.
err, that’s “r-e-v-v” as opposed to “r-e-w”
I used to work for a company that sold Motorcycle parts and Accessories.
The after-market parts and accessories market for Harley’s is far and away the biggest. It seems that part of being a Harley owner is customizing your bike. Everything from custom fenders, seats and bolt covers are available.
The exhaust pipes are one of the most visually important parts of the bike, and changing them is relatively cheap and easy. That in mind, the number of companies making after market pipes, and the total number of different models available is quite high.
Whether you choose straight pipes (almost no muffling), baffles or full mufflers, it obviously makes a huge impact on the apparent sound. It might not change the “rhythm” a big v-twin makes (and only a Harley fan could tell you if a “pan-head” engine sounds different then a “shovel-head” or “flat-head”) but I would think the eventual difference would mean that there would be too many different “sounds” to ever copyright.
As an aside, we would regularly get calls from “sportbike” owners (Crotch rockets) who wanted to know what exhaust system would make their 6 cylinder oil cooled 750cc engine sound like a 1200cc air cooled v-twin… Sorry kids…
Jack
Jack,
Did you hear that Harley Davidson is working on a water-cooled engine? It’s apparently being done as a request from various police departments that love the bike but need something that won’t shut down in traffic or parades. Will be interesting to see how the fans will take this…
Where/how did you check, and what were the sounds? I imagine they were all on the line of the “four sprint tones” you hear in US Sprint television commercials (or maybe I’m getting mixed up with another phone company.)
It’s not a perfect way of finding out all the trademarked sounds and smells (I checked and the trademark for the scented thread wasn’t renewed), but you can go to the Trademark Electronic Search System at
http://tess.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=2a6qsm.1.1
Then do a “structured form search”
In the first search box enter “(6)”. The parentheses are required, but not the “”.
Then for the field, use the drop down box for “Mark Drawing Code”.
Some trademarked sounds are also used for long distance carriers or certain answering machines.
In 1982, the arcade game manufacturer Taito was sued by the estate of author Edgar Rice Burroughs for using the familiar Tarzan yell in its video game, “Jungle King”. The basis was copyright infringement, presumably because the sound in the game was a direct copy of Johnny Weismuller’s yell in the Tarzan movies. The yell, which technically belongs to MGM (as copyright holder on the film) had become so intrinsically bound to the character of Tarzan, that the Burroughs estate contended that Taito had infringed on the character’s likeness, to which rights are held by the Burroughs estate. Subsequently, Taito re-released the game as “Jungle Hunt”, with a new character and no yell.