Trade-marks Sound Bank

The trade-marks office recently started accepting sound marks.  This has been going on in the US for quite some time, but has been refused in Canada until recently since the office imposed a requirement that marks be visual in nature.  The case that pushed the office to do so (though the courts) involved the MGM Lion’s roar.  The waveform above is the visual representation of that famous roar.  There are tons of sound marks out there, that are very well known and distinctive such as the NBC chimes, the iphone “SSSHICK” sound when you ‘slide to  unlock’.

The best thing that results from it is there is now a website/depository of all the sound marks that you can listen to. Here it is: http://bit.ly/IbKSKi

Currently the database  only the MGM Lion and a Mars Bar rock jingle (entered by another order of the federal court).   I am looking forward to checking out the sound marks to follow.  I also look forward to seeing how creative people mash these up into re-mixes and songs, which I expect is inevitable and would lead to  some interesting conflicts in trade-mark and copyright law.   If you are interested in such mash-ups, check out RiP!: A Remix Manifesto.