I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats since
last week waiting to hear what happened in the case between
tour companies involving duck sounds. In case you need a
refresher, the case I mentioned was Ride the Ducks, LLC v.
Duck Boat Tours Inc., 75 U.S.P.Q 2d (E.D. Pa. 2005), which
involved two tour companies were using DUKW amphibious
vehicles for tours of Philadelphia.
"DUKW" is an acronym for the military designation for
six wheel drive amphibious trucks developed during World War II,
and, of course, it would be pronounced the same way as the word
"DUCK".
A WWII "DUKW" looked like this:
The parent company of Ride the Ducks, LLC owned the following
registration (Reg. No. 2,484,276) of a "sensory" mark
consisting "of a quacking noise made by tour guides and tour
participants by the use of duck call devices through various
portions of the tour" for "tour guide services over land
and water by amphibious vehicles": 75686528 (<– click
here). That
