Boston's Amphibious Fight

Once in a while a story comes around that's pretty much perfect for the Herald to report. Today they took one and ran with it. From 'ducky' to 'billing' to 'pecking order' to 'pluck', and that's all just in the headline and lede. They didn't shoot their load on 'quacked up' until half way through the article on the court filings for the trademark dispute between the two local amphibious tours. The case filed in Federal court, Boston Duck Tours v. Super Duck Tours, LLC, pits the new company as the defendant with Boston Duck Tours who've been quacking around the city since 1994 asserting that Super Duck Tours which launched earlier this year is stealing their image.

Super Duck Tours, LLC began giving tours in May of this year – they include a tour around Boston's streets and a dip in the harbor in their Hydra-Terra vehicles, which seem to be the Hummer H2 to the Boston Duck Tours' Jeep Cherokee (which is actually a WWII vehicle). The Boston Duck Tours are trying to protect their business carrying over a half a million tourists each year, to that end they're hoping the law suit will help them pull a Morgan Spurlock and prove that "super-sized" isn't necessarily a good thing. Or more accurately they're trying to prove that Super Duck Tours isn't just a bigger better version of the tour they've been offering for over a decade. It's been some years since Bostonist has been aboard any duck-branded vehicle, but from what we gather the Super Duck Tours hit more of the Harbor and Charlestown sites where the Boston Duck Tours take more command of the Charles in their tour. Either way, and whichever side comes victorious from the law suit we'd hate to have to navigate a 40 foot truck/boat through the streets of Boston.

Image of the Boston Duck Tours vehicle and the Super Duck Tours vehicle, both in a soothing yellow color and both from the front page of their respective websites. The Boston Duck Tours is a bit more colorful - might we reintroduce you to South End Sarah?