Aaron Cheney
Favorite Chord: C 6/9
I'm starting to hear quite a buzz among the guitar community about Fender's apparent attmept to copyright the body shape of the stratocaster and telecaster guitars.
Wow.
If they succeed that will have some huge repercussions! Where will that put builders like Melancon, Grosh, Suhr, Anderson, and the million others that are making axes based off the Fender shape?
It also raises a few more questions: how different does a design have to be to be "different"? For example, Fender has never offered a Telecaster w/ tummy and arm cuts. Would their copyright prevent another builder that does from doing so? Also, other strat designs do vary somewhat. For example, in Melancon's strat shape the bass-side "horn" has a slightly different angle to it. It's subtle, but enough for a trained eye to detect and recognize as a Mel.
And furthermore... have you read Fender's official Ebay policy? They expressly forbid anyone from using the term "strat" or "tele" unless you are describing an offical licensed Fender product, and they randomly monitor Ebay and have them remove any item that infringes upon that rule.
Here's my uneducated opinion (i.e. worth nothing): Sometimes a brand name becomes so ubiquitous that it becomes the common word for any such product. Take the words "kleenex" or "band-aid" for example.
The words "strat" and "tele" are such words. WAKE UP FENDER!!!
I also hope that their copyright bid fails. Those shapes are equally as ubiquitous, and have gone unprotected for 50 FRIKKIN' YEARS!! The headstock shapes have long been copyrighted, and this I understand - they are decorative in nature. The body shapes, however, serve a functional purpose.
It will be interesting to see how this all pans out....
A
www.aaroncheney.com
Wow.
If they succeed that will have some huge repercussions! Where will that put builders like Melancon, Grosh, Suhr, Anderson, and the million others that are making axes based off the Fender shape?
It also raises a few more questions: how different does a design have to be to be "different"? For example, Fender has never offered a Telecaster w/ tummy and arm cuts. Would their copyright prevent another builder that does from doing so? Also, other strat designs do vary somewhat. For example, in Melancon's strat shape the bass-side "horn" has a slightly different angle to it. It's subtle, but enough for a trained eye to detect and recognize as a Mel.
And furthermore... have you read Fender's official Ebay policy? They expressly forbid anyone from using the term "strat" or "tele" unless you are describing an offical licensed Fender product, and they randomly monitor Ebay and have them remove any item that infringes upon that rule.
Here's my uneducated opinion (i.e. worth nothing): Sometimes a brand name becomes so ubiquitous that it becomes the common word for any such product. Take the words "kleenex" or "band-aid" for example.
The words "strat" and "tele" are such words. WAKE UP FENDER!!!
I also hope that their copyright bid fails. Those shapes are equally as ubiquitous, and have gone unprotected for 50 FRIKKIN' YEARS!! The headstock shapes have long been copyrighted, and this I understand - they are decorative in nature. The body shapes, however, serve a functional purpose.
It will be interesting to see how this all pans out....
A
www.aaroncheney.com