jwr2 wrote:I fail to understand why people here hate copies of Rics, but don't hate copies of Fenders or Gibsons or Hofners ... etc. I understand why Rickenbacker enforces their trademark. But why do members here also jump on that bandwagon? Nobody gets upset if Sandberg makes a p-bass or if Lakland makes a jazz bass or if Sadowski makes a Fender style bass. After all ... it is all the same exact thing. If we are not hypocrites then those who hate Ric copies should also hate all copies. As for me I don't hate copies.
Jeff, it is most definitely NOT the same thing, and I'm surprised that with the number of times this issue comes up, and from the same posts that come up explaining what the difference, that somehow it still hasn't made itself plain.
1. RIC trademarks and trade dress have stood the test of time. Rickenbacker (and Electro String) were reasonably diligent, and showed terrific foresight, in protecting their designs early on. They are, in fact, required to act in defending these marks against all thieves. To not do so is considered grounds for abandonment of the mark.
2. A person becomes a "thief" when he appropriates someone else's property for his own uses. Intellectual property--patents, copyrights, trademarks, and other categories--are registered with the Patent Office in the USA and other countries, for the purpose of protecting against just such thievery. A person who steals a registered intangible (like a trademark) in broad daylight, without any threat of violence is as much a thief as the guy who steals a new Corvette from somebody else's garage in the dead of night.
3. Fender and Gibson (and some others) never took the time or had the foresight to register many of their earlier designs, and the result is the extreme proliferation of copycat designs. This is because they are fair game for copycats.
4. It's legal to make a Strat or Tele body. It's not legal to make a Rick body, neck with headstock, toaster pickup, "R" tailpiece, and other protected items without license. Notice how Allparts and Warmoth sell licensed Fender necks? It's not the neck, per se, but the headstock design that Fender did register, and people are thus told, basically, to stay away. Fender's legal team has a group of lawyers who do nothing but enforce violations on the things they have registered, and seek to register old and new features in order to protect their stake as best they can.
5. That's called "closing the barn door after the horse has escaped".
Although I did change out the pickups, I LOVE the bass. The best 5 string bass I could possibly imagine.
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