Tarzan meets Wallace and Grommit

Aaaaaah-ah-ah-ah-ah-aaaaaah? Ah ha!

The IPKat is interested to see that OHIM is drumming up interest in its trade mark applications. The IPKat recently reported that the Second Board of Appeal refused a sonogram representing Tarzan’s yell. Now the OHIM General Affairs and External Relationships Department has issued a press release to say that although the sonogram was refused registration, a musical notation of the yell, applied for at the same time has been registered, and an application is pending for the sound represented by a sonogram and an MP3 file (a possiblity since 2005). Says OHIM lawyer Wouter Verburg :

“We are getting increasing interest in this area –everything from Tarzan’s call to a lion’s roar [which was refused notes the IPKat]. If they comply with the formalities and are distinctive they can be registered, and we now accept MP3 files as part of this process, provided they are filed together with the sonogram. As technology moves on we have moved too.”

The IPKat wonders, what’s the scope of protection of musical notation representing a yell? All instruments? Just the human voice?

Wakey, wakey

At last, a useful invention. The Waker Upper 3000 is the brainchild of the pupils of East Allington Primary School, south Devon, and has won the UK-IPO’s ‘Cracking Ideas’ competition for primary schools. The device features the rather lethal-sounding combination of a ‘mallet, headphones, a jet of water and eyelid openers to keep people awake during boring activities such as homework.’

Leaving aside his concerns about introducing awareness of patenting directly into the national curriculum, the IPKat says, wouldn’t it be nice for the children if all intellectual property professionals were provided with a prototype of this invention? Not that intellectual property is ever boring, of course…