Has Fender taken any legal action against all these companies selling counterfeit Fenders?
It would give me great piece of mind to know they're not just sitting idley by and letting it happen. I'm not wishing to pry, or have anyone disclose priveleged information, but a simple "yes, we're on it." would be nice to hear from the company.

I would think so, but I have seen some counterfiet Fenders for sale, and honestly, they look like complete $@!&. I mean anyone that has owned a real Fender before can obviously tell it is a fake. Now what I am talking about are the Fenders being sold on Chinese websites, you might be talking about fake vintages or something, but the Gibsons look shockingly real, while the Fenders are just laughable...

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1965 Fender Precision Bass, 1994 Fender '54 Reissue Precision Bass, 2007 Applause Celebrity, 2011 Fender American Special Jazz Bass, 2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazzmaster, 2013 Fender American Special Stratocaster, 2013 Gibson LPJ

I'm talking about any and all guitars that are labeled as Fender, but are not. Any case wich is clearly an attemp to defraud the consumer. More specifically the high scale operations doing this. The ones such as this https://plus.google.com/photos/10009051 ... 7681059393 posted on this thread viewtopic.php?f=6&t=67912 , or like the one on this thread viewtopic.php?f=6&t=67301.

Out where I live we are always busting people on CL for trying to sell fake Fenders and Gibsons. As soon as you see them contact local police.

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In the USA this is illegal. It is called FRAUD.

HAHAHA SERIOUSLY, the link you sent me to, the Fender job was soooo laughable.. OKAY first, IF THERE IS A 70'S LOGO NOT ON A 70'S LARGE HEADSTOCK IT'S A FAKE..... I mean come on..... really... and on ALL Fender necks, there is always something, either walnut wood on the Americans, or black plastic on the Squiers and MIM Fenders around the truss rod hole...

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1965 Fender Precision Bass, 1994 Fender '54 Reissue Precision Bass, 2007 Applause Celebrity, 2011 Fender American Special Jazz Bass, 2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazzmaster, 2013 Fender American Special Stratocaster, 2013 Gibson LPJ

Hi RRR: I have no idea whether Fender are pursuing the retailers of fake guitars. In these days of cross-border internet-based selling that can be an uphill task. However, it's the makers of counterfeit gear you really need to go after, and Fender have been working at that.

Some of us are old enough to remember the last explosion of imitation instruments in the 1970s. That time around they were coming out of Japan and, just as is happening now with the Chinese fakes, as time wore on the quality got better and better, sometimes rivalling that of the real branded product. Back then Fender took a two-pronged approach to fighting the problem, ultimately with great success; and they are following the same strategy this time around.

First was to fight the fakers in the courts. 1970s Japan had a good legal system: the problem has been that China's judicial system has so far not been nearly so strong, with a limited respect for intellectual property rights and issues of inefficiency and corruption. However, that has been gradually changing, in part as Chinese companies themselves begin to have intellectual property they need to protect. The legal situation is improving and it is becoming more viable to fight counterfeiters within a judicial framework.

Second was to take manufacturing into the rival market. In the early '80s Fender (and Gibson and others) co-opted the very factories that had been making imitation guitars, signing them to building legitimate gear under license. Fender Japan was born and in fact played a crucial part in saving the Company as it emerged from its disasterous CBS years.

And in the same way in the last few months Fender have started making Fender-logo'd guitars in China for the first time. These are mostly for sale in the Chinese market, so newly affluent kids there can buy legit Fender gear, undermining the counterfeiters on their own soil. And some of these Chinese-made Fenders are entering the Western market as well - we had several threads about it here on the Forum.

Ultimately, this joint legal-manufacturing approach worked very well 30 years ago and there is every likelyhood it will again. So don't worry: I've a feeling things will turn out OK in the long run.

Cheers - C

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This is the kind of response I was looking for. T'was the Manufacturer's I asked about anyways, not retailers so much.

Gibson has had its struggles with counterfeits too. I think all they managed to accomplish was a to force a design change of the headstock and not use the Gibson name, even though it still bears the name Les Paul. Now they're back to fighting other ones.