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Sport 39: 2011

WIKIPEDIA ON THE TARZAN YELL

WIKIPEDIA ON THE TARZAN YELL

The sound itself has received a trademark registration, owned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. The official description of the yell is:

The mark consists of the sound of the famous Tarzan yell. The mark is a yell consisting of a series of approximately ten sounds, alternating between the chest and falsetto registers of the voice, as follows—

1. a semi-long sound in the chest register,
2. a short sound up an interval of one octave plus a fifth from the preceding sound,
3. a short sound down a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
4. a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
5. a long sound down one octave plus a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
6. a short sound up one octave from the preceding sound,
7. a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
8. a short sound down a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
9. a short sound up a Major 3rd from the preceding sound,
10. a long sound down an octave plus a fifth from the preceding sound.

Despite these efforts, the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) in late 2007 determined that such attempts by the estate of Burroughs to maintain such trademark must fail legally, reasoning that ‘[w]hat has been filed as a graphic representation is from the outset not capable of serving as a graphic representation of the applied-for sound,’ said the OHIM ruling. ‘The examiner was therefore correct to refuse the attribution of a filing date.’ However, the sound recording of the yell is an officially registered trademark with the USPTO. The mark was registered in August 1995 and renewed in December of 2005.