1 Gilson on Trademarks § 2.11

Summary

• [1] Introduction

  You can see, smell, taste, touch and hear them. You can even feed your dog with them, sit on them, sleep in them, clean your pool with them and, if hunger strikes, eat them. What do they have in common? They are all nontraditional trademarks, often skirting the outer limits of trademark protection and, in some cases, evoking head scratching, eye rolling or chuckling. For examples of this legal genre, take the design and layout of the Apple store,1 the Peabody Hotel daily March of the Ducks,2 Manhattan Oil’s cherry fragrance additive to race car fuel,3 goats on a roof,3.1 and even the sound of tourists quacking while riding on amphibious vehicles.4

  Most trademarks are readily ...