New wave of "lawsuit" guitars?

[lars]

Get ready for it:
https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/gibson-sues-dean-guitars-trademark-infringement/
Now your Dean guitar is going to become a super-sought-after collectable that was of "superior build quality/ cutting into sales, blah, blah, blah", hence they had a lawsuit against them. It's the new "lawsuit guitar" (to add to the impossibly long list of "lawsuit" guitars).

[pickdropper]

Get ready for it:
https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/gibson-sues-dean-guitars-trademark-infringement/
Now your Dean guitar is going to become a super-sought-after collectable that was of "superior build quality/ cutting into sales, blah, blah, blah", hence they had a lawsuit against them. It's the new "lawsuit guitar" (to add to the impossibly long list of "lawsuit" guitars).

That's assuming Gibson wins.  They might, but it's far from a foregone conclusion.  Dean has been allowed to operate with these designs for 40 years.  They will certainly argue that Gibson abandoned their trademark.

[matmosphere]

The video was pretty baffling honestly. The attitude was a little of the mark. To aggressive. I don't feel like the "hey, we're coming for you!" hit the right tone.

I don't know if they have any legal footing, but I can tell you it makes me want a Gibson less. Not that I've ever really longed for a Gibson anyway.

[Aentons]

Get ready for it:
https://guitar.com/news/industry-news/gibson-sues-dean-guitars-trademark-infringement/
Now your Dean guitar is going to become a super-sought-after collectable that was of "superior build quality/ cutting into sales, blah, blah, blah", hence they had a lawsuit against them. It's the new "lawsuit guitar" (to add to the impossibly long list of "lawsuit" guitars).

That's assuming Gibson wins.  They might, but it's far from a foregone conclusion.  Dean has been allowed to operate with these designs for 40 years.  They will certainly argue that Gibson abandoned their trademark.

I'm speculating but it sounds to me like there may have been something that Armadillo started doing within the last couple/few years that crossed a line since they mention Trademark Counterfeiting in conjunction with a number of their brands.

[pickdropper]

The video was pretty baffling honestly. The attitude was a little of the mark. To aggressive. I don't feel like the "hey, we're coming for you!" hit the right tone.

I don't know if they have any legal footing, but I can tell you it makes me want a Gibson less. Not that I've ever really longed for a Gibson anyway.

I think a lot of people had that reaction.  I fail to see any benefit to making that video.  File a lawsuit if you think there's merit, but do it quietly like everybody else instead of making yourself an unlikable bully.

I have Gibson guitars that I really like.  I'm far from a hater.  But this was handled very poorly.

[GermanCdn]

While not out of character for Gibson, this seems odd.  First, Dean has had that headstock style for years, why sue now?  Secondly, Gibson has already lost a similar lawsuit against PRS with the Singlecut line, and that one I actually understood, because that represented a legitimate, higher quality threat to Gibsons product line.  I can't see Dean competing for the same market as mid level Gibsons and up successfully, though admittedly I haven't been in a guitar store in a couple of years.  ESP seems like it would be more of a threat than Dean and have a lot more market presence, and have heavily borrowed from the Gibson guitar catalogue.  Maybe Gibson is too afraid to take on a company who might have the ability to fight back, and an artist roster that boosts sale numbers?

Given the amount of awful ideas Gibson has produced over the last couple of decades, it seems to me that they would be better off making design improvements to their bread and butter line to increase sales, as opposed to suing a guitar company that has been brought off life support numerous times.

[Tremster]

You can even snitch on guitar companies on the Gibson site, if you feel like it:
https://www.gearnews.com/gibson-launches-anti-counterfeiting-website-report-form-anything-to-declare/

[EBK]

You can even snitch on guitar companies on the Gibson site, if you feel like it:
https://www.gearnews.com/gibson-launches-anti-counterfeiting-website-report-form-anything-to-declare/

Sounds like a fun thing to abuse. 
"Fender copied your fret spacing!"
"PRS is totally stealing your 1/4-in. output jack idea!"

[pickdropper]

While not out of character for Gibson, this seems odd.  First, Dean has had that headstock style for years, why sue now?  Secondly, Gibson has already lost a similar lawsuit against PRS with the Singlecut line, and that one I actually understood, because that represented a legitimate, higher quality threat to Gibsons product line.  I can't see Dean competing for the same market as mid level Gibsons and up successfully, though admittedly I haven't been in a guitar store in a couple of years.  ESP seems like it would be more of a threat than Dean and have a lot more market presence, and have heavily borrowed from the Gibson guitar catalogue.  Maybe Gibson is too afraid to take on a company who might have the ability to fight back, and an artist roster that boosts sale numbers?

Given the amount of awful ideas Gibson has produced over the last couple of decades, it seems to me that they would be better off making design improvements to their bread and butter line to increase sales, as opposed to suing a guitar company that has been brought off life support numerous times.

Agree that the crux of their issue (although I not a lawyer) is that they allowed Dean to operate for years.  Generally, if you don't enforce your trademarks, they can be invalidated.  I'll be curious to see how they argue that point.  But I don't think the quality of the competition necessarily factors in from a legal perspective; plus, Gibson sells products at lower price points under the Epiphone moniker that could also be threatened.   

Many people have called out Gibson for going after Dean and not going after the myriad other companies doing similar builds (such as ESP or Yamaha).  Singling out Dean is typical bully behavior; going after the weaker competitor and ignoring the bigger ones you'd have a harder time beating.  In reality, I think their real issue is import counterfeits bearing their name.  Anybody can go to Alibaba and get a Gibson style guitar that actually has the Gibson logo on it from China.  That's much harder to enforce, though.

Wholeheartedly agree that they would be better off focusing on development and rebuilding their reputation in the post-Henry era.  They had gotten off to a good start, but I think this was a step back.  I don't get too put off by the lawsuit itself (that happens ALL the time in business) but their video approach was not well thought out.

[Max]

I think I'll report a B. May guy for copyright infringement on the headstock shape he used on his Red Special, suspiciously similar to the Flying V (can I say Flying V?).
As for the chinese copies: at least in Germany the customs are checking each guitar and kit guitar coming from china for copyright infringement, but I think they only check the brand on the headstock and eventually fake serial numbers and so, but it's getting difficult to have even kit guitars shipped to Germany, you can't even access the ebay page of these "producers" from ebay.de, they are just empty.

[nzCdog]

Take your pick
https://www.google.com/search?q=facepalm&safe=strict&client=firefox-b-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4ksyEu4rjAhVLbn0KHVkLBGQQ_AUIECgB&biw=1920&bih=966

[lars]

That's assuming Gibson wins.  They might, but it's far from a foregone conclusion.  Dean has been allowed to operate with these designs for 40 years.  They will certainly argue that Gibson abandoned their trademark.

The fact that no lawsuit whatsoever was even attempted in the 70's against Tokai, Hohner, Aria, etc., hasn't stopped people from referring to those as "lawsuit guitars". Basically, anything MIJ from the 70's that even slightly resembles a Gibson, people advertise as "lawsuit" = more money values and things.
Yes, the exact same thing will happen to Dean guitars, and people will demand a premium because of their newfound interesting pedigree. "Ohh, Gibson was afraid of these...they must be special".
Yes, palm to face indeed.

[Aentons]

A buddy of mine just brought this by for me to keep for a bit. Pretty cool.

If a bit of originality is what comes out of the lawsuits then fine by me.

[thesmokingman]

it usually isn't a good look when you lose a similar case at an international level, which Gibson just did in the EU ... while the EU doesn't set law or precedent here in the US, it is a bit of "reading the room" in a global market. I am curious, and I'm sure we'll learn more about, why this was so targeted. It would be more interesting to me to find out which guitar factories are behind runs of chibsons, who those factories normally do work for (or were in contract with at the time), and why Gibson hasn't pursued those murky waters more.

[nzCdog]

Yeah I saw that... the Flying V shape shows 'no demonstration of distinctive character' is an interesting comment from the EU ruling