3 ms·

Not a lawyer and I don't have any insights to this, but I wouldn't speculate based off this - trademark holders kind of "have to" pursue each violation, because

Not a lawyer and I don't have any insights to this, but I wouldn't speculate based off this - trademark holders kind of "have to" pursue each violation, because otherwise they carry the risk of the trademark becoming too widely used/generic so it would become meaningless.

deleted 5mo ago
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CocaKoala 5mo ago
A quick browse of Sweetwater shows 689 different s-style body guitars, four of which are made by Fender under the Squier label. The other 685 different varients are made by companies that I'm not immediately identifying as Fender or Fender-owned. Anecdotally, that doesn't seem significantly different from the status quo I remember 10-15 years ago when I was actively guitar shopping. The body style has been widely used and generic for decades.
ses1984 5mo ago
This was already litigated decades ago in the USA, fender trademarked the headstock and lost in on the body. The bodies have been copied for 60ish years already, basically as long as they existed. Fender tried to trademark body shapes decades after and they lost on appeal in 2009. A barely related ruling in the EU which has very different copyright and trademark law is being used as the basis for this suit.
nikanj 5mo ago
Yes. However, they are not suing based on a trademark, they are suing based on having copyright on the shape of the body.
skywhopper 5mo ago
This isn’t a trademark case.
skeeter2020 5mo ago
>> otherwise they carry the risk of the trademark becoming too widely used/generic so it would become meaningless. if you've seen a picture of an electric guitar in the last 75 years you'd know this horse bolted a while ago. The "classic" styles of stratocaster, telecaster, les paul and SG have been made by everybody since forever. And that's before you even establish if Fender has some form of "trademark" (on a shape!)

deleted 5mo ago

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CocaKoala 5mo ago

A quick browse of Sweetwater shows 689 different s-style body guitars, four of which are made by Fender under the Squier label. The other 685 different varients are made by companies that I'm not immediately identifying as Fender or Fender-owned. Anecdotally, that doesn't seem significantly different from the status quo I remember 10-15 years ago when I was actively guitar shopping. The body style has been widely used and generic for decades.

ses1984 5mo ago

This was already litigated decades ago in the USA, fender trademarked the headstock and lost in on the body. The bodies have been copied for 60ish years already, basically as long as they existed. Fender tried to trademark body shapes decades after and they lost on appeal in 2009. A barely related ruling in the EU which has very different copyright and trademark law is being used as the basis for this suit.

nikanj 5mo ago

Yes. However, they are not suing based on a trademark, they are suing based on having copyright on the shape of the body.

skywhopper 5mo ago

This isn’t a trademark case.

skeeter2020 5mo ago

>> otherwise they carry the risk of the trademark becoming too widely used/generic so it would become meaningless. if you've seen a picture of an electric guitar in the last 75 years you'd know this horse bolted a while ago. The "classic" styles of stratocaster, telecaster, les paul and SG have been made by everybody since forever. And that's before you even establish if Fender has some form of "trademark" (on a shape!)