Fender gain legal protection of the Stratocaster body design in the EU

[Cuauhtli]

Didn't read all of that but Servco was one of the investors who helped save Fender from potential bankruptcy after cbs ran Fender into the ground.

Servco is also an investor in Roland.

[pekbro]

Servco, a familiar name in Hawaii. Good to work for them if you want to buy a lexus.

[BertKoor]

https://yamahamusicians.com/fender-the- ... e-letters/

Interesting indeed...

Gibson pursued aggressive legal action over body shape trademarks for years, targeting competitors and creating a climate of legal uncertainty that smaller builders found deeply damaging. It did not end well for Gibson’s reputation, and it did not solve their underlying financial problems either. Gibson filed for bankruptcy in 2018.

So they think it comes out different for them

[Uncle E]

Correlation does not equal causation.

[Gamma-UT]

Correlation does not equal causation.

Thought-terminating clichés do not an argument make.

You can see this pattern of litigation across many sectors. Fender's demand for customer lists, for example, harks back to the ill-fated attempt by SCO to claim a bounty on Linux. The clown-car action that followed was just a symptom of SCO simply being holed below the waterline and flailing around before it went under.

Numerous companies have turned to litigation when they've run out of regular revenue in similar style. And that's possibly the cause here, so it's not unreasonable to expect the outcome to be similar. The best-case scenario (for Servco, that is) is that this is to try to make the business more attractive to some PE firm that reckons it can gut Fender and turn a profit. But that probably winds up in the same place. Even if successful with the case, they're not going to make bank by closing down some boutique manufacturers or, even worse for Fender, popularising alternative shapes.

[mystran]

Servco is also an investor in Roland.

Yes. For this reason I am currently having serious internal debate about whether I can still buy myself a CE-2W and perhaps a Roland piano as well.

ps. I mean lawyers are going to lawyer, but since Fender appears to be entertaining the idea of destroying musical instruments, that's a bit too much for me.

[Uncle E]

Thought-terminating clichés do not an argument make.

Who’s making an argument? Strats are cheesy, Fender can have them.

[YnJ]

I like cheese though. Does all this mean I have to hurry to pick up those Ibanez AZ guitars I want, or does the headstock save them?

[Uncle E]

Probably not. Losing a case could put the whole thing in jeopardy, and the AZ is enough of a departure that they might lose. PRS, OTOH…

[tapper mike]

What popular alternative shapes?

Yes there are other shapes solid body guitars come in but they don't have the feel or can generate the tone quite the same as a stratocaster. I like my Parker but it's often seen as too ugly for the general public.

About PRS. He (Paul Reed Smith) stole the shape from Ovation which hand the basic PRS shape long before PRS even worked at Gibson. As I recall at the time those Ovation guitars were more expensive than top of the line Les Paul guitars which is prolly why they never caught on.

[Uncle E]

I think Hamer also did it before PRS. The Dinky shape is enough of a departure. Personally, I’ve always loved the full-size Steinberger’s, the ones that were Strat-ish and not like the future Bill & Ted guitars.

Fender themselves had many better body shapes, IMO.

[tapper mike]

I think Fender will try to make it any offset double cut design.

I'd love for Fender to try it in an American court with some company that is willing to go to trial against them.

[Gamma-UT]

I think Fender will try to make it any offset double cut design.

I'd love for Fender to try it in an American court with some company that is willing to go to trial against them.

If their lawyers have any sense, they’ll tell Fender that’s a non-starter as the longer upper horn is for the strap. It’s not quite like the trademark situation with functional-vs-non-functional design but it’ll play into the legal arguments: can you copyright something that is functionally necessary? If it even gets that far, they’ll have to focus on Leo’s original design and how much wiggle room on things like bevels you need around that.

However, as the lawyers used the rectangular backplate from the Chinese knock-off in their C&D, which is also pretty functional, I’m not sure Bird & Bird have any sense.

[Cuauhtli]

The lawyers are encouraging this. They'll make off like bandits if they end up with a bunch of lawsuits or a protracted court case.

[BertKoor]

The lawyers are the only winners here. They get paid, whatever...