It is possible to get an audio trademark. Certain sounds are associated with certain products and services. Think of any commercial jingles, or the startup sound for a Mac. The human mind will associate sounds with brands, and when that happens, trademark law plays a role.
As with other types of trademarks, an audio trademark protects the association between a symbol and a source. Trademark rights arise once people in the market begin to associate that symbol with that source.
You can get an audio trademark.
You Can Register An Audio Trademark
You can register an audio trademark much like any other mark. Some registered audio trademarks that you might know already: the NBC “chimes”, the MGM “lion roar”, the Yahoo! “Yodel”.1 As with any other kind of trademark, the key factor in determining whether a trademark in a sound or music can be registered is if that sound or music has become associated with a particular good or service.
You can even register a piece of music as a trademark. Think of the Lone Ranger theme song (it’s an excerpt from the William Tell overture) – that’s a registered trademark. If you were to hear it on a movie or TV show, you would probably think of the Lone Ranger.2
As with other kinds of trademarks, you can’t register an audio trademark that is merely descriptive or functional. So that means things like dishwasher beeps or other alarm beeps are going to be trouble, as will registering the sound of an engine.3
Why Register An Audio Trademark?
I bring up this topic because there are more and more independent multimedia producers that could potentially benefit by identifying and registering certain sounds that have become integral to their brands. In fact, I would suspect that a good number of companies have already established trademark rights in a sound or music but don’t know it yet. And not knowing about your trademark is about the same as not having it in the first place.
None of this is meant to be legal advice, and I am not your lawyer. If you have an actual legal issue, please consult an attorney in your jurisdiction, but do not rely solely on this article or any other article you might find on the Internet.
- Here is a list of more audio trademarks. ↩
- Keep in mind that this is different from copyright – even though the William Tell overture is in the public domain, the registered trademark protects that association between the music and the show. ↩
- In fact, Harley-Davidson tried for years to register the sound of its engines as a trademark for years, ultimately giving up when other motorcycle manufacturers opposed. ↩
