November 2007
A Clearer Voice on Tarzan’s Yell
We brought you news in November that the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM) had rejected an application to register Tarzan's yell as a trade mark. As we explained, there is no bar on sounds being trade marks, but they must be capable of being represented in the official journal so that people know what is registered.
The decision of OHIM seemed to require sounds to be represented by musical notation and the Tarzan application consisted of an image of the sound waves called a “sonogram”. However, OHIM have rushed to clarify their decision by saying that such images can be acceptable if accompanied by an MP3 file of the sound.
Briffa’s Comment
This is good news for branding as it allows more creativity for people wanting to operate in the current technological climate. It is not unreasonable to require people searching the register to use an MP3 sound file. The technology for reproducing sounds from MP3 players is much more readily available than the technology for producing them from sonograms. It is arguably more available than the apparatus needed to re-create a sound from musical notation and results in a much more accurate sound.
For further information contact Peter Mason