Fender Drama (and fallout)

[lamia6]

If you haven’t been following the drama in the guitar world recently, this is what is happening. Fender has issued cease & desist orders to guitar manufacturers and guitar retail shops. The orders pertain to the “S” shape guitars, namely Strartocaster style. Not only is the cease & desist orders to halt all production of the brands models, but also for the retail shops to pull all of the models in question off their shelves (cannot sell them anymore). It goes beyond that. They are also telling them to destroy all of the remaining stock, for both the manufacturers and stores. If you thought that is ridiculous, there is more. The other part is to go through the customers sales, contact them to bring back the instrument, and have those destroyed as well.

 

This is a level of insanity you cannot make up, nor is it feasible. Likely not even enforceable for a rather generic shape of guitar. This is a list of (some) of the manufacturers they are going after:

 

Yamaha alone could crush them. Generic shapes are not copyrightable in Japan. Gibson tried this before, and lost miserably. Not to mention Yamaha is a far bigger company, 4 times bigger.

 

The fallout is already begun. Many guitar retail shops (a lot in Europe) are pulling all Fender brands off the shelves and will no longer be dealing with them ever again. It will be a PR nightmare that recovery from is doubtful. People are also enticing Marshall to go after them for the clones of their amps in their guitar emulation software. I do see many BOSS clones in there too, and the good ol tube screamer, which is an Ibanez – Maxon brand. Hypocritical much? Or did they forget they own Presonus, Studio One and what all is in there for extras?

 

What else can happen remains to be seen. Going after Japanese companies can bring more fallout. Sanrio could give the Hello Kitty contract to someone else (very good money maker). Chips and capacitor contracts could be terminated grinding most if not all the production to a halt. These are things that should have been thought about, but obviously were not. Speaking of manufacturing, the offset brand Squire, is made in the exact same facilities the “clones” they are going after are made. It is not like they didn’t know. They knew, and did nothing, which sets precedent. Those facilities could also cancel out and quit making them, and increase production of the others instead. With shops quitting on selling Fender, the demand for the others will definitely increase.

 

 

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[Brian]

Thanks for the update @lamia6  I saw some headlines but I didn’t go any further, so I appreceate your post.  The only people that will benefit from this Quixotic blunder are, of course, the lawyers.  Happy days for them.  Very sad, IMHO.  I own one Fender label and two Squire labeled guitar & bass (ALL made in Indonesia), and they are just excellent.  I was (eventually) pleased that they bought Presonus, but this is madness.

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[fossile]

i guess when the people who own Fender acquired billions in new debt, they probably missed the boat without realizing that their market is already a) saturated, b) no longer interesting for the majority of people (Esp those using AI in lieu of actual instruments, composition, and mixing). as a result someone is likely freaking out and thinking of all the possible ways they can use to repay that acquired debt before the axe falls… if they were serious, they’d have acquired the exclusive rights to sell their instruments to educational institutions – replace those 19th century marching bands with 20th century electric music! lol

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[lamia6]

There is definitely something up with them. Trying this again is not going to work out. I did some more reading into it and they did try to get copyrights on the Strat, Tele, and Precision bass for the US. In 2009 the courts struck it down, as it has been far too long letting it go, and that the shapes are deemed too generic to copyright. Since that decision those shapes became public domain for anyone to use (within the US). One place (Music Radar) said they did try back then to file claims in the UK and Europe, and also lost. So why try to pull it again is beyond comprehension. Using many of the same arguments they used back then as well.

The full US court file is here:

 

https://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?pno=91161403&pty=OPP&eno=246

 

IMO, this is where the cartoon music should be playing in their heads, when the Coyote realizes the plan is not going to work.

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[lamia6]

Going after PRS is now confirmed, for the John Mayer’s signature Silver Sky. Fender is very likely to loose this one, as they are made in the US and Asia. The previous loss (which put the S shape into public domain) will lean heavily into what should be an open and shut loss, again.

 

https://www.guitarworld.com/gear/electric-guitars/prs-fender-cease-and-desist

 

 

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