THE BIG STORY: Is Fender about to sue the entire guitar industry?
In May, the company started sending cease-and-desist letters to Yamaha, PRS and other guitar makers. They claimed Fender had recently won copyright protection over the iconic design of the Stratocaster electric guitar — and that look-alike “Strat-shaped” guitars would amount to an infringement of those rights.
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It turns out Fender’s been trying to get exclusive IP rights to the double cutaway, S-shaped look of the Stratocaster for more than two decades, first with a failed effort to trademark the design in the U.S., and now with a more successful bid for copyright protection in Europe.
But the rest of the industry isn’t taking the threats lying down: “Our client has every right to continue to sell its guitars with Strat-style guitar bodies, whenever and wherever it so chooses,” one opposing lawyer wrote. “Efforts by your client to bully competitors based on misrepresentations and overstatements are anti-competitive.”
For the whole story, go read Rachel Scharf’s excellent story on the brewing Strat strife. And stay tuned at Billboard to find out if Fender actually files any lawsuits.
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