For the last four years, John E. Scannell has run Bay Quackers, a tour company whose open-air amphibious vehicles, known as ducks, roam the streets of San Francisco. As the vehicles cruise past sights and eventually plop down in the bay, passengers use a kazoo-like device to quack at passers-by.
It is, Mr. Scannell said, a purposefully absurd way of introducing visitors to a city that is often purposefully absurd…
But if a new duck in town, if you will, has its way, Mr. Scannell’s quacking days could be over. Last month, a rival company, Ride the Ducks, filed suit in Federal District Court here to stop Bay Quackers from using quacking devices on its tours.
At issue is a “sound mark,” the auditory equivalent of a trademark, which Ride the Ducks says it holds on a quack created by a yellow bill-shaped kazoo (called a Wacky Quacker) and which it says Bay Quackers has violated by using a similar kazoo that creates an identical quack.
“If you blew theirs and ours, you wouldn’t hear any difference,” said Bob Salmon, vice president of marketing and sales for Ride the Ducks, whose company has been using its kazoo for more than a decade. “It’s a very important part of our product. We’re very interactive with people on the street, and the way that we interact is using our Wacky Quackers…”
The suit seeks not only a preliminary injunction on the use of the rival’s kazoos, but also destruction of “all noisemakers or other implements” that produce quacks on Bay Quackers tours.
These people should get a fracking [quacking?] life!
This isn’t the first time someone has sued over a sound. Harley-Davidson also sued Honda for imitating the Harley sound. They ended up giving up on the case, which, personally, is a shame.
Nothing else sounds like a Harley. Nothing.
I guess Harley thought the Honda did.
A “sound mark?” What is that? How in hell’s name can a sound be protected by laws? Nature is the source of all sound and we certainly cannot sue Mother Nature, or can we?
@1 – If nothing else sounds like a Harley, then they didn’t have a case against Honda 🙂
Wow, I -so- don’t care one way or another.
Perhaps someone could drill holes in all their boats and drown the whole mess.
Why a duck?
#6—These vehicles can float on the water, much the way a duck can.
# 6 Dave W said,
Why a duck?
A Marx Brothers fan, eh?
J/P=?
Seems to me if you let someone “infringe” on your “sound mark” for four years, you’ve probably lost on your claim.
Question for any lawyers in our group: Is there such a thing as a soundmark? I’m guessing it could be. Think of the opening sound to Windows. As awful as it is, people associate it with MS and I’d bet it is trademarked.
I can remember living in the city in America and seeing these giant duck things cruise the place, full of people “quacking” at me. It gets a little strange after a while to be walking down the street minding your own business, when a giant duck drives by full of people blowing these things at you. Its also somewhat surreal that giant quacking people filled ducks are a daily annoyance for me. I usually give them a friendly wave though 🙂
There’s a minor league baseball team on Long Island called the LI Ducks. They also sell identical quackers.
#1, Mac,
Harley-Davidson also sued Honda for imitating the Harley sound.
Not quite. Honda and several others sued HD over their efforts to trade marked the HD “sound”.
#7, Kanjay,
#6—These vehicles can float on the water, much the way a duck can.
While true, that is not why. I’m going totally off memory here so if anyone has some correction to this then great.
The vessel originated during WWII as an amphibious vehicle that could transverse calm seas and drive on the beaches. They could carry about a dozen or so troops or about a ton of material.
General Motors developed the vessel using their 2 1/2 ton truck frame. The government designated the vessel with the letters the DUKW. The designation is only that and is not an acronym or short form for anything.
Those that drove them soon corrupted DUKW to DUCK. After the war many of them were bought and converted to tour boats. Since they are based upon the GM 2 1/2 ton truck, all the drive train was easily replaced and maintained with off the shelf GM truck parts. I imagine that by now, some of those parts are getting a little short in supply.
Why a duck? Follow this link of look up WW II duck on google.
http://www.ask.com/bar?q=+ww+II+duck&page=1&qsrc=0&ab=0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDUKW
I think it may be the name of the vehicle.
I’m not sure you can force people not to tut on an over the counter product by claiming you own the rights.
Sorry #13 I wrote the above before I read your post.
Unless they actually have the duck bills custom made I have doubts about them too.