Fighting
YUUUP
Dave Hester of the television show "Storage Wars" and rapper Trey Songz are fighting over the right to use the word YUUUP as a "signature sound". Via an article in the New York Post,
Hester, however, argues that Songz’ version “resembles an animal-like or non-human squeal which begins with a distinct ‘yeeee’ sound before finishing with a squeal-like ‘uuuup’ sound.”
That’s “distinct and different from Hester’s more monosyllabic sounding guttural auction bidding phrase...which is meant to convey the meaning of ‘yes,’ ” court papers say.What do you think?
COMMENT - They don't sound the same at all to me. I don't hear the /p/ at the end of the Trey Songz version. Also, notice all the different spellings of the sound (not surprising but how do you trademark a sound based on spelling). I think they will need the services of a forensic linguist and the trademark will have to be based upon a phonetic transcription.
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I have begun work on an MSc in forensic linguistics and the subject of the trademarkability of sounds is one I am considering for a paper. Please share any and all thoughts you may have on the subject by clicking on the comment button.
3 comments:
They definitely don't sound the same to me either. I also don't hear a /p/ at the end of Songz' version (but then it is also hard for me to tell if there is a /p/ at the end of Hester's... it almost sounds like a glottal stop when I listen to it without looking at the video), and they both have distinctly different vowel sounds.
I've always thought that the trademarking of individual words (other than brand names) is a bit ridiculous. You just run into all sorts of issues. I don't know a lot about trademark law, but since isolated words can derive so much of their meaning from context, it seems that fact alone could make it a really sticky problem. In this case, phonetic transcription seems like the best route to resolve the conflict, but can you trademark a phonetic transcription? That seems to open up a whole new realm of ridiculousness.
P.S. Where are you getting your degree in Forensic Linguistics? I have a friend who is very interested getting a masters in the field
Seriously? Cease & desist. Weird logic...truly legal. If upheld, I would venture to believe that any portions of spoken language (and portions of written language) would then become under ownership of someone else- a hateful thought.
But, no, it's not the same sound. (My husband, a political scientist, has an uncanny ear for identifying voices. I'll be interested in your work.)
(Not surprised that some it's Hester and not Barry, though)
Lady Jane Grey - I am in the distance learning MSc program at Aston University. I have completed the lectures for the first module and am researching topics for the final paper. So far, I am enjoying the program and would recommend it to anyone who does not live near a university that offers a forensic linguistics degree.
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