If it quacks like a duck ...
Sue it.
That's what Norcross-based amphibious tour operator Ride the Ducks International is doing to a rival.
Ride the Ducks says a competitor, Bay Quackers LLC, has been providing a kazoolike noisemaker to passengers on its tour vehicles in San Francisco that sounds like a duck. Passengers blow them at bystanders in a bit of interactive fun.
The sound is similar —- too similar, the federal suit suggests —- to the Wacky Quacker noisemaker that passengers use on Ride the Ducks' tours in a half-dozen markets, including Stone Mountain Park and San Francisco.
The suit seeks to protect the "sound mark" held by Ride the Ducks, the auditory equivalent of trademark protection. Ride the Ducks obtained the federal mark more than a decade ago, it says.
Although rare, sound marks are given for unique sounds identified with specific businesses, such as MGM's lion's roar.
"It's critical to our product," said Ride the Ducks vice president Bob Salmon. "It's one of the things that makes our duck tours different. With duck tours in general, there's a lot of confusion between the types of products, and this is one of the tools we use to differentiate ourselves."
Ride the Ducks, which uses vehicles that travel on both land and water, is actually the newcomer to the San Francisco duck tour market, having motored into the Bay Area in July.
A Bay Quackers employee said the company's owner does not want to comment on the suit, which asks that it immediately quit its quacking.
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