Can You Trademark a Sound? NBC's Chimes, MGM's Lion, and Netflix's 'Ta-Dum'

Sound as a Trademark: The Legal Basis

The Lanham Act defines a trademark as any word, name, symbol, or device that identifies the source of goods or services. The USPTO and the courts have long read 'symbol or device' broadly — broad enough to cover colors, scents, product shapes, and sounds. A sound qualifies for registration when it performs the same job as a logo: hear it, and you know who it's from.

The first registered sound mark in the United States was NBC's three chimes — the notes G, E, C — registered in 1950 after decades of radio use. The roster since reads like an audio history of American media and technology:

• MGM's lion roar — the studio's film-opening roar, registered for motion pictures
• Intel's five-note 'bong' — possibly the most-played sound mark in history, embedded in decades of PC advertising
• The Law & Order 'dun-dun' — the scene-transition sound, registered by NBC
• Netflix's 'ta-dum' — the streaming era's entry in the registry
• The THX 'Deep Note' — the cinematic crescendo that precedes films in certified theaters
• 20th Century's fanfare, the Pillsbury Doughboy giggle, Tarzan's yell — all registered sound marks

The Distinctiveness Hurdle: Unique vs. Commonplace Sounds

Not every sound can simply be claimed. The TTAB's framework, going back to the case that registered NBC's chimes' successors, distinguishes two categories:

Inherently distinctive sounds

Arbitrary, unique, or fanciful sounds — composed audio signatures that have no functional or expected relationship to the product. A purpose-built five-note logo like Intel's falls here. These can register on distinctiveness much like an invented word.

Commonplace sounds

Sounds that products make in ordinary operation — rings, beeps, chimes, alarms — are treated like descriptive words: registrable only with proof of acquired distinctiveness. The applicant must show, through years of use, advertising, and consumer recognition evidence, that the public hears that particular sound and thinks of one source. This is why generic notification beeps don't fill the register: proving that consumers attribute a 'normal' product sound to a single company is genuinely hard.

The Functionality Bar: Why Harley-Davidson Walked Away

A sound that is a functional result of the product itself cannot be a trademark — trademark law refuses to hand anyone a monopoly over engineering. The defining story is Harley-Davidson's: in 1994, the company applied to register the exhaust note of its V-twin engine — that syncopated 'potato-potato' rumble. Nine competitors, including Honda, Kawasaki, and Suzuki, opposed, arguing the sound is simply what a 45-degree V-twin engine with a single crankpin produces — any manufacturer using that engineering gets that sound.

After six years of proceedings, Harley-Davidson withdrew the application in 2000, declaring it would rely on the loyalty of its riders rather than a registration. The lesson stands: if the sound comes from how the product works rather than from a deliberate branding choice, it isn't registrable — exactly as a functional product shape can't be trade dress.

How to Register a Sound Mark

The application mechanics differ from a standard word or logo filing in a few ways:

1. No drawing. Where a design mark requires an image, a sound mark application states that the mark is a sound and relies on the description.
2. A precise written description. The application must describe the sound exactly — naming the notes, instruments, rhythm, and any spoken elements. Vague descriptions draw Office Actions.
3. An audio specimen. You submit an audio file (or audiovisual file) of the actual sound as used in commerce — in your product, your ads, your app, your broadcast.
4. Evidence of distinctiveness where required: years of use, advertising expenditure tied to the sound, consumer recognition evidence for commonplace sounds.

Fees, classes, examination, and publication for opposition work exactly as for any other mark. Sound marks live in the same Nice classes as the goods or services they identify — Intel's bong is registered for computer products, MGM's roar for entertainment services.

Should Your Brand Pursue One?

Sonic branding has real commercial momentum — streaming intros, app notification sounds, voice-assistant audio cues, podcast stingers. Most businesses, though, should treat a sound mark as a later-stage asset, for the simple reason that the registration usually requires the very thing startups don't have yet: years of consumer exposure linking the sound to the brand.

The practical sequence: design a distinctive audio signature early (arbitrary and composed, not a stock sound), use it consistently everywhere your brand makes noise, document the usage and ad spend — and file when the recognition evidence exists. Companies that did this — Netflix being the recent model — converted a few seconds of audio into an enforceable, renewable-forever brand asset.