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Post subject: Fender Trademarks
Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 2:45 pm
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I always wondered about this. If a guitar company sells guitars with the Fender bulb head stock they get sued, but many guitar companies rip off the Stratocaster body style, and they don't get sued?


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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:48 pm
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Location: Peckham: where the snow leopards roam
Ah, there's a shed-load of history there. Back in the day, neither Fender nor Gibson thought about patenting or trade marking their solid body guitars. The idea that anyone would be interested in copying them just didn't come up: nobody foresaw it would become this vast business we see today.

As things took off, both companies belatedly realised they’d better think about protecting their assets. What they discovered was that the cat was out of the bag as regards patenting their body shapes, and that the easiest thing about a guitar to trade mark is the headstock. So that’s what they did.

The irony is that a key part of Leo Fender’s design was the bolt-on neck. As well as being cheap to manufacture it was part of his vision that when we broke our necks, needed a re-fret or just fancied a different one we’d be able to simply unscrew it and whack in a new one, which of course we’d have to buy from him.

Great, except that now they couldn’t sell us spare necks because people would bolt them on to someone else’s perfectly legal Stratolike body and turn a cheap imitation into a Fender Strat, with most of the profit going not to Fender. Therefore, the one part of a Strat that you can’t buy is a new neck – except in special circumstances and after jumping through an array of tiresome hoops put there by the company.

Even more peculiar. People nevertheless want to buy Fender necks, so the company licences various makers, such as Warmoth and MightyMite to produce replica necks and headstocks, but without the crucial Fender logo.

Since the logo is one thing they do own indisputably in law, they have been exceedingly protective over it down the years. Fascinating, for instance, to see a picture of a 1970s Tokai Stratolike (which some folks will argue were at the time better than the real thing – maybe, maybe not). For a time Tokai wrote their name in lettering that so closely imitated Fender’s logo that you can’t tell them apart till you get close. Till Fender sued the **** out of them, that is.

Bodies are much more difficult to take action over, because over the decades they have become accepted in law as generic shapes. Look at the mess Gibson got themselves into trying to sue PRS over their Singlecut, earlier this decade.

And there you are. That’s why you can’t swap out your rosewood neck for a maple one, or 21 frets for 22. Not if you want it to still say Fender on the peghead, that is.

And that’s your story for tonight, children. Gotta get to bed, now. G’night.


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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:09 pm
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WOW!! I never thought there was that much to it. Thanks for the story and all that typing. That sucks about the bodies being a free market for everyone. It makes me mad when I see all those strat-like guitars on eBay labeled as Stratocasters. Some kid is gonna buy one and realize it's just strat-like when he actually gets it. Thats why when I got mine off eBay, I would not bid on anything that did not show a close up of the head stock with the serial number as well.

From now on, I will guard my neck like its made out of gold. lol

Thanks for the story!


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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:21 pm
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CloseYetFar wrote:
WOW!! I never thought there was that much to it. Thanks for the story and all that typing. That sucks about the bodies being a free market for everyone. It makes me mad when I see all those strat-like guitars on eBay labeled as Stratocasters. Some kid is gonna buy one and realize it's just strat-like when he actually gets it. Thats why when I got mine off eBay, I would not bid on anything that did not show a close up of the head stock with the serial number as well.

From now on, I will guard my neck like its made out of gold. lol

Thanks for the story!


Ah, but they're not allowed to call them Stratocasters. For that they get sued most mightily. That's what all that "S-type", "T-type" stuff is about. It means, "we all know this is a fake Strat, but we're not going to say so out loud, cos then the people from Fender will be coming after us in the matt black unmarked attack helicopters". It's like that, the music business...

C


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