Official Luthiers Forum!

Guess your right Jeff

Would probably take lots of Dollars to challenge

Russell, that argument works with patents, but not trademarks. If ANYTHING is not being used commercially in the field of use,, and sometimes even if it is, you can register a trademark on it. People trademark pine trees everyday, everything from Pinesol to Pine Ridge Country Club.

Thanks Jerry

Man that is a beautiful burst and guitar!

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

[QUOTE=Brazilwood]
[/QUOTE]

That ought to be fun to put binding on.   

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

[QUOTE=Jerry Hossom] I used to be involved with a lot of intellectual property issues. Most trademarks and design patent issues are only as good as you're willing to spend money defending them in court. In the case of Brad's headstock (which I really like BTW) it could easily be argued that the top is actually the second most used form in all of woodworking. It adorns a great many bed headboards and is present on a lot of cabinetry, secretaries and other closed and open cases. It's use in guitars could be argued is a reasonable extension of that prior art. I think that would likely kill a patent claim, but not a trademark claim. That doesn't mean Gibson might not threaten you. That's cheap and usually effective. What isn't cheap for either you or them is you suing them for relief or them suing you to enforce their claims. That said, they can really only "win" if they can show they've been damaged by your use of the design. Does Brad compete with Gibson? That would probably be a hard sell, so there's really very little Gibson can get out of Brad, but they still might want to prove their rights to the design by winning the case and thus preventing say Taylor from using it.

I still like Brad's a whole lot more than Gibson's so there must be some distinguishing differences. That's just a great looking guitar.[/QUOTE]


The reality of the situation is... if Gibson focused their legal lasers on you, you will probably be toast regardless if you are right or not.

They would bury you in paper and you couldn't afford the attorney's fees to fight it. It is just easier to cut a deal.

Big companies bully little ones all the time with this tactic...

but I honestly don't think there is any risk there. The headstock is significantly different.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com