Trademarks in the guitar industry

A trademark can be a name, a logo, a product shape or any visual element that is distinctive of a product and distinguishes it from its competitors. Famous elements are “the swoosh” of Nike and the Coca-Cola contour bottle. In DavidonTM’s blog “Three Chords and a Lawsuit: A Brief History of Guitars and Trademarks” of Jeffrey Davidson, trademarks in the (highly competitive) guitar industry are analyzed.

The first infringement case involved Fender Guitars. Fender originally named its current Telecaster guitar “the Broadcaster”. During the transition period, Fender sold a small number of Broadcaster guitars without a sticker. These no-name guitars are rare and premium goods in the vintage guitar market.

However, Gibson and Fender, the market leaders and manufacturers of the legendary and iconic models, chose not the challenge copycats, unless they are virtually identical to their originals. Most copy guitars are low-cost and foreign-made.

Ibanez started out as copyist and was faced with so many infringement threats, that it started to develop its own models. In true poetic justices, their own models are now targeted by copycats.

To protect themselves from copycats, elite guitar started to certain specific elements of the guitars. Gibson energetically enforces its rights in the "open book" design at the top of its guitar headstocks. Fender protects headstock shapes, and especially those of its iconic Stratocaster and Telecaster models. Paul Reed Smith protects its headstock, its signature “birds in flight” fretboard inlays, and the beveled edge of its cutaway. Rickenbacker has protected both body shapes and headstock shapes of its guitars for decades now.

It shows that the (legal) devil is indeed in the details…

(Illustration by Long for Robotech, the role-playing game, showing the LV-1200 Stratocaster Bass Guitar)

Google's Chinese Legal Trouble

Google finds itself in hot water again – this time from a Chinese novelist. Mian Mian, a counterculture writer known for her lurid tales of sex, drugs and nightlife, has filed a lawsuit against Google for scanning her latest novel "Acid House" without permission and putting it in its online library. Mian Mian is quite a colorful character (the pic is a file photo). Based in Shanghai, she shot to fame in 2000 when she published the novel "Candy," which caused a stir with its graphic depiction of heroin use. Most of her work is banned in China, though pirated copies are widely available. “Candy” is translated into English and widely available for purchase online.

At the court session, which consisted of a two-hour hearing, a Beijing judge told the two sides to hold talks on a settlement. Mian Mian is seeking damages of 61,000 yuan ($8,950) and a public apology.

A Google spokeswoman in Beijing, Marsha Wang, said the company removed Mian Mian's works from its library as soon as it learned of the lawsuit, adding that Google had no further comment on the suit or Tuesday's hearing. She added that Mian Mian's lawsuit was the first that she knew of in China over the scanning plan. The company has removed Mian Mian's works from its libraray.

Mian Mian’s lawyer stated that a negotiated settlement was a possibility and the court set no deadline, adding "we think even if they remove Mian Mian's work, their previous behavior is a violation of her rights. We demand a public apology."

This is the latest snag in Google's efforts to crate an online library, where printed works are available online. Previously, Google was under attack from writers in the United States and Europe (among others). Google reportedly has already scanned more than 10 million books, many of them still under copyright. Google negotiated a $125 million settlement last year with American authors and publishers, and it trying to avoid potential copyright infringement in Europe by only books scanning books over 150 years old. The European Commission said in October 2009 that it might change copyright law to make it easier for companies such as Google to scan books and distribute copies over the Internet.

In China, the China Written Works Copyright Society (a government-affiliated group) is taking on Google and negotiating compensation for Chinese authors whose work is scanned into its library. Mian Mian however, doesn have any connection to the Chinese writers' group. Commenting on Mian Mian's lawsuit, the group called on Chinese writers to band together to negotiate terms with Google instead of suing. It said it is due to hold settlement talks with the company in January. According to the group, Google has scanned more than 80,000 works by Chinese authors into the library.
It will be interesting to see how the Google’s Chinese troubles will pan out….