Sonichris wrote:

Fellow Aquasonic Maui Malara has one, and is pictured holding his on the homepage - scroll down , he's on the left.

Very cool, Chris! How does he like it?

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
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Ah, so it's the same like the original Surfcaster in that regard. Too bad...

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Yep that dude!! Phil!

All looks and no brains.

LHR wrote:

IvanP wrote:

LHR wrote:

Of course Fender owns this brand now, as well as the designs. I would be surprised if they let this happen given their affinity for essentially remaking the same guitar for ever and ever.

You can't own a guitar design.

I would challenge that claim. If an Eastwood product could be readily confused with an FMIC product at point of sale; that is, if it was as exact as most of the copies Eastwood offers, then you can bet Fender would try to protect their brand. Try to buy a Rickenbacker copy in case you really think design ownership is an irrelevant IP concept. Though I guess Fender and Gibson really only seem to consider it economical to protect their unique headstock shapes, this couldn't possibly be some sort of rule. And you gotta know that, if it was easier, they would vigorously attempt to squash anything remotely similar. You may know something I do not about IP law in this case. Feel free to educate me.

Well, I know of two precedents: 1) back in the early '80s as the Japanese copies were flooding the US shores, Fender took a bunch of them to court, which decided the only thing that Fender could have a copyright over was the headstock shape. After that, Fernandez and ESP in particular continued to supply Strat copies to the US with slightly altered headstock shapes. 2) about ten years ago Gibson sued Paul Reed Smith for their Singlecut guitar copying the Les Paul design. Gibson ultimately lost the case. (See details from Wikipedia below). So, here are two important legal precedents, where courts decided that a guitar design does not have copyright over it. I do not know of a single example of the opposite.

From the Paul Reed Smith page on Wikipedia:
Legal issues

In 2001, when PRS released their "Singlecut" guitar—which bore some resemblance to the venerable Les Paul. Gibson Guitar Corporation filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Paul Reed Smith. An injunction was ordered[4] and PRS stopped manufacture of the Singlecut at the end of 2004. Federal District Court Judge William J. Haynes, in a 57-page decision ruled "that PRS [Paul Reed Smith] was imitating the Les Paul" and gave the parties ninety days "to complete any discovery on damages or disgorgement of PRS's profits on the sales of its offending Singlecut guitar."[4]

In 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the lower court decision and ordered the dismissal of Gibson's suit against PRS.[5] The decision also immediately vacated the injunction prohibiting the sale and production of PRS’s Singlecut Guitar. PRS announced that it would immediately resume production of its Singlecut guitars.

Gibson tried and failed to have the case reheard by all sixteen active Sixth Circuit judges (denied in December 2005)[6] and then by the United States Supreme Court (denied June 2006),[7] which was their last chance to have their original injunction upheld.

While no changes to the design of the Singlecut occurred as a result of the lawsuit (given that Gibson lost), some Singlecut owners and sellers have adopted the term 'pre-lawsuit' to differentiate their Singlecut from others.[8][9][10]

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

I always wondered if Fender would ever have been dumb enough to sue Mosrite. The hot rumor over the years is that Semie Moseley flipped a stratocaster upside down; traced it and then "covered the tracks" by:
- using a 3x3 headtsock
- a german carve around the body
- a super slim neck with low frets
- two hotter-than-any-Fender-strat P90 type pickups instead of three
- a simplifieed trem system (thank you, Paul Bigsby)

It would be a hard sell to prove in court.

At least Fender and Gibson have enough brains to sue a defendant who has the probable means to pay if they prevail. Semie Moseley never had to worry about that. He was in and out of money so many times, a plaintiff award would well have been a hollow victory -i.e. a waste of time and legal expense. Just ask the Ventures

Ivan is correct here. One stroll through a NAMM show halls and it is apparent that body shape is not much of a concern. There are dozens of companies selling guitars based on our favorite classic models by Fender, Gibson, Martin, etc. right under the noses of every major manufacturer. Lawyers for the big guys would have a field day if were an issue.

Rickenbacker may actually be an exception but I don't know the details. I know a guy who was going to market a Ric 370 copy, he received a cease and desist letter from Rickenbacker after posting a pic of the prototype on his website.

It's amazing how some design patents were allowed by the owners to expire many, many years ago without renewal. Once that happened, as in the case of the Strat, Tele etc., and the forms were mass copied, the original owner of the design patent lost their ability to bring about litigation.

http://www.facebook.com/CrazyAcesMusic
http://www.youtube.com/user/crazyacesrock
http://www.reverbnation.com/crazyacesmusic

I remember an eBay auction from a few years ago, by a seller who obviously was a fan and very knowledgeable about the Surfcasters. He was selling a couple of the later, cheaper models and stated right in the auction that they were horrible guitars! I can't recall the exact wording but stated that he was just being honest.

Shawn Martin
http://www.drummerman.net
http://www.youtube.com/GKacedrummerman
http://www.facebook.com/drumuitar

Pretty soon there will only be Fender-owned brands selling at Bain Capital-owned Guitar Center stores. Then I will go a capella.

LHR wrote:

Of course Fender owns this brand now, as well as the designs. I would be surprised if they let this happen given their affinity for essentially remaking the same guitar for ever and ever.

Squink Out!