ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 27, 1996 TAG: 9603270023
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MILWAUKEE
SOURCE: JODIE DeJONGE ASSOCIATED PRESS
There's no scientific way to describe it, no method to measure its mystique - but Harley-Davidson Inc. contends the sound uttered by its legendary V-twin motorcycle engine is so distinctive it deserves a trademark.
``The sound we like to use, the verbal description, is, very fast, `potato-potato-potato,''' said Joseph Bonk, the company's trademark attorney. ``It brings the imagery to mind.''
Just as IBM obtained a trademark for its computers and Jell-O secured one so nobody could copy its gelatin dessert, Harley wants federal protection from imitators.
``There are people trying to duplicate the sound,'' Bonk said.
But there are opponents standing in the way, including rival motorcycle makers Honda Motor Co. and Yamaha Motor Corp., who argue Harley's claim is unfounded. They have filed papers with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office opposing its application.
``Yamaha has been building V-twin engines since the early '80s, and there's no difference between the sound their engine makes and the sound our engine makes,'' said Yamaha spokesman Bob Starr. ``All V-twins, by their nature, have two pistons. The pistons go up and down, and they all sound the same.''
Honda contends it has long sold heavyweight bikes that produce a similar exhaust sound.
The sound doesn't identify and distinguish Harley's motorcycles from others or ``indicate the source of the motorcycles,'' Honda's notice of opposition claims.
Harley begs to differ, contending it's easy to identify that potato-potato-potato, even in a crowd.
``It's something our customers, and other riders and nonriders alike, have begun to identify,'' Bonk said. ``They identify the sound, and they relate it to that brand image.''
Mike Keefe, director of the 296,000-member Harley Owners Group, said the engine sound is ``a very important element of the motorcycle.''
Harley-Davidson - a company that started in a Milwaukee shed in 1903 and survived bankruptcy, years of quality problems and a Japanese invasion of the market in the early '80s - seriously cultivates its brand image.
Years of production problems have kept supply well below demand, but Harley is gearing up to produce 100,000 motorcycles annually by the year 2000. Its $1.5 billion in annual sales have given it some cash to pursue long-neglected trademarks, Bonk said.
Harley's application is charting new ground. There are only a few dozen sound trademarks in the United States and, unlike the MGM lion's roar and the NBC chimes, Harley's sound is linked to mechanical function, said Ruth Nyblod, a spokeswoman in the Trademark office.
``The bottom line is, would our registering this mark cause confusion in the marketplace among consumers? We've already made that decision, that it's probably registerable,'' Nyblod said.
With provisional approval on Harley's side, the nine registered opponents bear the burden of proving the engine sound is neither unique nor closely associated with the Harley brand. The dispute could last for months.
``It's going to be a precedent-setting decision on whether others can more liberally trademark their sounds,'' said Kenneth Port, a law professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee. ``This is business and a new way to protect your business.''
The U.S. Supreme Court has been leaning heavily toward protecting intellectual property such as trademarks; Port, for one, believes Harley's guttural blasts will be registered.
``I think it's ridiculous, the route it's going,'' Port said. ``If you start protecting these things, there's no end.'' THE LOCAL VIEW ON A HARLEY TRADEMARK
Dave Putto, salesman, Roanoke Valley Harley-Davidson Ltd., Roanoke.
"The Harley definitely has a sound... and you can tell the difference between them and other bikes.
"We were up on the parkway riding, and you could hear a 'wheee' sound and tell they were Hondas, but then you could hear the rumble coming down the road and you knew they were Harleys."
Jim Cannon, manager, Blue Ridge Cycle, Salem.
"Well, they're trademarking everything else so why not this?"
"If they use it against the competition they're just evening the playing field," he said. But if the intent is to prevent bike owners from customizing the sound to their bikes, Harley-Davidson could be "cutting their own throats."
Don Favre, patent lawyer, Glasgow
"Recently I've gotten patent applications on colors, so sound is not that unusual." But a trademark on the sound "may give them protection of the engine design, and I don't know if they can do that. The other companies have to prove that the sound is not distinctive and that it's a two-cylinder engine just like the others."
Compiled by Elliott Smith
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Jim Winter, a mechanic at a Harley-Davidson store inby CNBNew Berlin, Wis., listens to what the company says is the unique
Harley engine sound: "potato-potato- potato." Nuts, say other
big-motorcycle makers, who are opposing Harley's trademark
application. color