LucSulla Posted March 11 Posted March 11 Guess they got jealous of all that authentic playing going on with Gibson. https://www.guitarworld.com/music-industry/fender-legal-ruling-protect-stratocaster-body-design Going after a copyright vs. a trademark (a case which they lost in the US about two decades back) is certainly a new wrinkle. Quote Fender has secured what it’s calling a significant legal victory against a Chinese guitar manufacturer, announcing a ruling that it says will establish “broad legal protection for Fender’s iconic Stratocaster”. In a press release, Fender announced it had won a court case in the Regional Court of Dusseldorf, which has created “enforceable rights against any guitars using the Stratocaster body shape that are manufactured, sold or distributed into Germany or other countries of the European Union – regardless of where those guitars are produced.” In essence, Fender says, this creates legal precedence and “reinforces its ability to protect its designs in global commerce”. Quote
LucSulla Posted March 11 Author Posted March 11 (edited) This just made a lot more guitars than just Chinese knock-offs illegal. For instance, can PRS sell the Silver Sky in Europe? And is it the pickguard and body shape? Is it only SSS? It's a pretty wild decision. Edited March 11 by LucSulla 2 Quote
LucSulla Posted March 11 Author Posted March 11 (edited) 18 minutes ago, Jimbilly said: a lot of horses out of that barn That's why they went after a copyright rather than a trademark. They lost the trademark case because they really didn't do shit to protect it until decades after it mattered. In the US, the courts said, "You can't let people make P Basses, Strats, and Teles unmolested for decades and then decide now its a protected trademark." I'm assuming in light of that, in the court they chose in Germany, which seems to have a reputation of being the decision maker for the EU in intellectual property matters from what little I've read, they pursued a copyright claim. Copyrights generally are used to protect the artistic expression, not brand iconography and aesthetics, like trademarks, or mechanical/chemical design, like patents. Whether they can indeed get the horses back in the barn is certainly a question, but there are a lot of respectable cowboys out there who found those horses as far back as the 60s and 70s, noticed no one seemed to want them, and built modest buy well-regarded ranches with them. I don't know how much Europe matters to Suhr, PRS, and Schecter or how important S-type guitars are to them (I imagine for Suhr, quite a bit in the latter case), but they may find that horse legally out from under them. I'll be interested to see what Fender tries to do with this, but even if they stick to only blatant offenders like Chinese knockoffs for now, it's still a nuclear option they can threaten at their pleasure whenever they want to in the future. Edited March 11 by LucSulla 3 Quote
Saul Goodman Posted March 11 Posted March 11 40 minutes ago, Jimbilly said: a lot of horses out of that barn They're just AI horses. 2 Quote
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