Re: Harley-Davidson sound trademark?

On Sat, Jul 31, 1999, Julia H. Crawford <juliac[_at_]okstate.edu> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 29 Jul 1999, Thomas Workman <tworkman[_at_]erols.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, 28 Jul 1999, Michael Moore <mmoore[_at_]mtu.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > The motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson filed a request with the
> > > PTO to trademark its 'unique' engine sound in 1994. Does anyone know
> > > what the final adjudication of that case is? I know that several
> > > other manufacturers submitted opposing views (which I'd like to track
> > > down and read someday), but I haven't been able to find any updates,
> > > either on the PTO site, or by searching the CNI archives, though I
> > > know it was discussed here at one point.
> > >
> > > Does anyone have any pointers on how I might find the status of that
> > > case?
> >
> > I have always thought that the trademark issued, but I never did a
> > formal lookup of the mark on the web. A search by mark would be
> > tricky...
>
> The appropriate search strategy involves the field "Description of
> Mark" (on the USPTO's MANUAL search engine
> <http://trademarks.uspto.gov/access/search-adv.html> the search must
> be prequalified with the field identifier DE).
>
> The application under discussion is serial number 75-453530. The
> "description of mark" field states "mark consists of the exhaust sound
> of applicant's motorcycles." The applicant is H-D Michigan, Inc.
>
> The status of the mark indicates that as of 12-98 "A non-final action
> has been mailed. This is a letter from the examining attorney
> requesting additional information and/or making an initial refusal.
> However, no final determination as to the registrability of the mark
> has been made."

Ms. Crawford,

There apparently has been some confusion on how to search for the Harley Davidson sound mark using the PTO database. One attorney e-mailed me indicating some of the fields may not be indexed properly. You posted a message to the group mentioning serial number 75/453530. Did your search not reveal serial number 75/485223?

Bob Forbes
<gls[_at_]trademarkinfo.com> Received on Mon Aug 09 1999 - 16:59:38 GMT