Joined: 10 Sep 2004 Posts: 2783 Location: Chino, CA
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 9:31 pm Post subject: The Fender Body Shape Trademark Case
As some of you may or may not know, we (Suhr Guitars) along with a consortium of other companies that includes Anderson, Sadowsky, Schecter, ESP, Peavey, US Music Corp., Lakland, Warmoth and some others, have been in litigation with Fender regarding Fender trying to trademark the Strat, Tele, P-Bass, and Jazz Bass body shapes (some 50 years after these instruments were introduced). This litigation has been going on for about 5 years now with millions spent on legal fees by both sides.
Well, the verdict is in from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office and... We won!!!
The Strat, Tele, P-Bass and J-Bass body shapes are generic, in public domain and free for anyone to use. This is a historical Federal citable case and we'd like to thank and congratulate all in the consortium of opposers to Fender's trademark application. These companies include Anderson, Schecter, Warmoth, ESP, First Act, Peavey and another dozen or so.
The sky is all clear and sunny now. This whole thing had been like a dark cloud hanging over our heads and now the cloud is dispersed for good. Man, I'd just love to walk through the offices of Fender HQ and see the look on the faces of the execs there who thought they were going to get away with this. They got totally pwned in this case and I can't help but gloat over the outcome of this decision.
Here is a link to the USPTO docket with the decision. It's a 75-page PDF document that can be viewed on the browser or downloaded and saved.
Great news... I would have thought that trying to retroactively trademark a design would be laughed out of court right away.
Out of curiosity - if Fender HAD won, could Suhr et al. just shave, say, a millimeter off of one of the horns or something, so the shape would be similar to a strat, but not exactly the same?
Joined: 10 Sep 2004 Posts: 2783 Location: Chino, CA
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 4:59 pm Post subject:
What made this trademark issue scary is that Fender just submitted generic drawings (without dimensions written out or anything like that) of each body shape (Strat, Tele and P-Bass) and essentially wanted to trademark the look. There's no telling how far they would have gone to enforce the trademark had they won.
The Suhr Classic and Classic T shapes are not identical to the Fender Strat and Tele shapes. In fact, a Fender Strat pickguard won't fit on the Classic body because the dimensions and the screw-hole spacing are different. There's no question that the Classic and Classic T shapes are our takes on the Strat and Tele designs, but there are subtle differences.
Anyway, our main models are now the Modern and Standard anyway. We made a conscious effort to get away from the Strat and Tele "clone" designs and focus on the Modern and Standard models to be the Suhr identity, but we'll always build what customers want. The Classic and T models are still very popular and Guthrie digs 'em too! _________________ Ed Yoon
Certified Guthrie Fan-atic
BOING Music LLC - Managing Partner
.strandberg* Guitars USA
Ed Yoon Consulting & Management
Guitar Center Inc.
What made this trademark issue scary is that Fender just submitted generic drawings (without dimensions written out or anything like that) of each body shape (Strat, Tele and P-Bass) and essentially wanted to trademark the look. There's no telling how far they would have gone to enforce the trademark had they won.
OMG thank god you won! If they had the trademark for just the look, it could have been the end for many luthiers or small guitar companys.
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