New wave of "lawsuit" guitars?

[Aentons]

https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/fender-loses-guitar-copyright-case-201886

It's been a little bit, but just to keep it real here... Fender does this same stuff. The distinction is, had they won this case, all these companies and more would have gotten C&D letters.

They "targeted":

"Spector Designs, US Music Corporation, ESP Guitars, Sadowsky Guitars, Lakland Musical Instruments, Peavey Electronics, Warmoth Guitar Products, Schecter Guitar Research, Michael Tobias and others"

[pickdropper]

https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/fender-loses-guitar-copyright-case-201886

It's been a little bit, but just to keep it real here... Fender does this same stuff. The distinction is, had they won this case, all these companies and more would have gotten C&D letters.

They "targeted":

"Spector Designs, US Music Corporation, ESP Guitars, Sadowsky Guitars, Lakland Musical Instruments, Peavey Electronics, Warmoth Guitar Products, Schecter Guitar Research, Michael Tobias and others"

They all do.  If you aren't going to defend patents and trademarks, then it's better to save money and not bother registering them in the first place.  If you don't defend them, then you may not be able to defend them at a later date.

[matmosphere]

https://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/fender-loses-guitar-copyright-case-201886

It's been a little bit, but just to keep it real here... Fender does this same stuff. The distinction is, had they won this case, all these companies and more would have gotten C&D letters.

They "targeted":

"Spector Designs, US Music Corporation, ESP Guitars, Sadowsky Guitars, Lakland Musical Instruments, Peavey Electronics, Warmoth Guitar Products, Schecter Guitar Research, Michael Tobias and others"

They all do.  If you aren't going to defend patents and trademarks, then it's better to save money and not bother registering them in the first place.  If you don't defend them, then you may not be able to defend them at a later date.

That is my understanding of what happened with fender. They went for so long just letting people make guitars that looked just like strays and teles that by the time they tried to stop it the judge basically said it was too late.

[Aentons]

Trademarks have been a thing for a long time but I'm sure the laws and other details have slowly changed over time. Why didn't these companies register the trademarks for headstock shapes and body shapes along with the logos back when they did those in the 50's and 60's. The headstock shapes didn't get registered til the 70's, 80's and 90's. The body shapes weren't registered till the 2000's. I'm not a lawyer so who knows what's changed and when in that many years.... Especially with Big Mouse Corp and it's interventions into the system.

[Tremster]

https://www.musicradar.com/news/gibsons-landmark-court-victory-changes-the-course-of-guitar-building-history

[matmosphere]

I'm actually kind of surprised, that stuff is pretty much as old as strats are and (as referenced before in the thread) things went very different for Fender when they tried something similar. I wonder if they'll try to revisit that case.

Either way in the last couple of years there has been a lot of innovation and novel designs that have popped up. Lots of people are making cool looking guitars that aren't Strat, Les Paul or whatever's.

[Derpinador]

Matter of where the case was tried, East Texas is some hidebound folk, ironically, file the case in their hometown of Kalamazoo they could just as easily lose. among a few reasons besides being shyte at it why  Idon't sell what I build