The roar of a Harley is considered such a
mark of distinction among
enthusiasts that the company applied for a
trademark on it! In 1994,
Harley-Davidson, Inc. submitted the following claim to the USPTO, accompanied by recordings of their motorcycles with and without
aftermarket mufflers:
The mark consists of the exhaust sound of applicant's motorcycles, produced by V-Twin, common crankpin motorcycle engines when the goods are in use.
Sound trademarks had been granted before, mostly on ad
jingles or media/entertainment
identifiers (the
MGM lion's roar,
NBC's three chimes). The
Lanham Act establishing trademarks in the U.S. allowed for any "
symbol" to be registered, and the courts have let registrants stretch the definition of symbol pretty far. This one raised a lot of
hullabaloo because the sound made was incidental to the operation of an already-
protected motorcycle design, and was similar to the sounds of other manufacturers' V-Twin engines. Opposition to the trademark was nearly
universal, and in
2000 Harley-Davidson, Inc. abandoned their trademark filing.
Sources: The Trademark Registrability of the Harley-Davidson Roar: A Multimedia Analysis by Michael B. Sapherstein, Boston College Intellectual Property and Technology Forum, Oct 11, 1998
USPTO database at tess.uspto.gov