Fender loses battle to trademark 3 guitar shapes

[faizal_rocks]

Here's something I read on the net.Not sure sure if everyone here knows about it by now but will post the link:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/04/09/20090409sr-fender0410.html

Enjoy reading!

 

[van_halen]

if fender won the battle, g&l won't be able to make strats anymore eh? the irony. g&l is founded by george fullerton (one of the guys who designed the stratocaster back in 1954) and leo fender himself

interesting excerpts from the article:

"Fender's lawyer, though, said the case was about defending the world's largest guitar manufacturer from foreign counterfeiters, not putting small firms out of business." (then why need to trademark the guitar body shape when trademark of the headstock shape and logo is enough?)

"Fender founder Leo Fender introduced the Telecaster and the Precision Bass in 1951 and the Stratocaster in 1954. Musicians from the rock, jazz and country worlds have made the company's guitars famous." (of course we all know that leo fender left fender long ago and eventually co-founded g&l with george fullerton)

" "Van Vleet said the decision applies only to U.S. rights to the designs, and Fender has rights or is applying for them in other countries." " (which countries?)

 

[Whitestrat]

"Fender's lawyer, though, said the case was about defending the world's largest guitar manufacturer from foreign counterfeiters, not putting small firms out of business." (then why need to trademark the guitar body shape when trademark of the headstock shape and logo is enough?)

This simply means, if they trademark the bodies, they probably can license the designs out to the smaller guys, and make a little more money... It's all business talk. Fender is a Corporation, never forget that. Gibson managed to do it with the Les Paul some years back, and no one contested. Fender didn't get it because they waited too long to file the mark. It's also probably to do with the fact that a Strat is much easier to make/copy than a Les Paul, by the virtue of it's own modular design.