India’s Trade Marks Act of 1999 defines a trade mark as “a mark capable of being represented graphically and which is capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one person from those of others”.
But the Registry had not registered any sound marks because of the difficulty in representing them graphically.
Yahoo! used the musical notation of the sound. Pravin Anand, partner of Anand & Anand, the firm that represented Yahoo! in its application, welcomed the decision, saying: “Their penetrative power makes sound marks really attractive as marketing tools.”
Anand said that for an application for a sound mark in India to be successful, a sample of sound has to be filed along with the musical notation.
The application for the mark was originally filed in March 2004. It was registered in classes 35, 38 and 42 for a series of goods including email, advertising and business services and managing websites.
Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has also applied to register its ring tone as a sound mark at the Mumbai branch of the trade mark registry. The application is pending.
