Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Considering my high-ranking position among the SAS (Short Attention Span) Society --can you save me some reading time and tell me if this is about Fender's losing their recent TM case?

Bill

Unless they either a) reissued the Dual Showman or b) reduced the price increase, I don't know what could be interesting about this...

Summary: Fender can't get a registered trademark with the US Patent Office for it's Strat, Tele or P-Bass body shapes.

I asked this on the corporate forum and got no reply: what about the J???

cassius987 wrote:I asked this on the corporate forum and got no reply: what about the J???

I haven't followed this case through its various permutations, but the decision published per the above only deals with those 3 body shapes and not the Jazz bass. You can do a word search in the opinion for Jazz and come up with a few references to it in the testimony quoted in the case, but the opinion itself does not address the Jazz bass body.

libratune wrote:Summary: Fender can't get a registered trademark with the US Patent Office for it's Strat, Tele or P-Bass body shapes.

Their case was really weak, and a good part of the decision was based upon their failure to police, beginning almost 40 years ago. The court concluded that Fender had allowed so many copies to be sold over nearly five decades, that it was not possible to attach the shapes to the brand "Fender" any longer.

Note that Fender licensed Warmoth to make necks, but never discussed licensing the same manufacturer's copycat bodies with them! This seems to me to be a case of taking short-term profits and ignoring long-term issues.

Interestingly, it was noted in the text that Fender did actually police the trademark (I assume it is trademarked) shape of their headstock.

As for the Jazz, yes a few mentions of it were in the text (yeah, I read the whole thing, I'm such a nerd! ), but since that shape was not specifically claimed in the case, no decision was made on that design.

Since the buy out of Bill Shultz and other key personnel who were responsible for putting Fender back on the map, it seems that the investment group that now owns FMIC are intent on taking the brand back to it,s CBS dark past. All about bottom line and instead of simply producing a product that cannot be parralled, lets just slap our opposition with a cease and desist order. Very sad, I read the transcripts and know a lot of the people personally mentioned in the Law suit, both on the Fender and Opposition, all very respected personally and professionally.
The reason in the past that the silouette pattern was not enforced and only the headstock , was partially based on , immitation being the sincerest form of flattery . After all in the past (the famous Lawsuit guitars Tokai, Moon, Greco etc. both Gibson and Fender turned some of these companies into manufacturing partners, producing exactly the same product but with a trademarked headstock logo for the Japanese domestic consumption, as they knew then it would be too difficult to police.
Didn,t Paul Reed Smith just recently win a similar law suit against Gibson on his Single cut based again on a Sillouette pattern.

JakeK wrote:Unless they either a) reissued the Dual Showman or b) reduced the price increase, I don't know what could be interesting about this...

Ugh, those behemoths are huge, ungainly, and weigh a ton-I've moved a couple around-no fun. They do sound cool though.

Depends upon which Dual Showman we're talking about, gentlemen. My early one is a workhorse, and the offending speaker cabinet weighs about the same as your AC-30s, Paolo! Then theres's the head--not too bad, but unbalanced, as the pwoer transformers are at one end, and the handle in the center for looks. Mine travels a fair amount. I don't have any complaints considering its HUGE sound.

The later Dual Showmen are way too big to make sense.

I like the Blackface models...not the Silverface Reverb models.

jingle_jangle wrote:Depends upon which Dual Showman we're talking about, gentlemen. My early one is a workhorse, and the offending speaker cabinet weighs about the same as your AC-30s, Paolo! Then theres's the head--not too bad, but unbalanced, as the pwoer transformers are at one end, and the handle in the center for looks. Mine travels a fair amount. I don't have any complaints considering its HUGE sound.

The later Dual Showmen are way too big to make sense.

When Fender put the showman cab on steroids..same inside just bigger..likely was to attempt to get a stage presence like the the monster Marshall stacks of that era

The first silverface (drip edge) models had the exact same circuit as the blackface models...when Fender added the master volume..it sucked....tone

Damn, I love that guitar, George!

mgauction wrote:Damn, I love that guitar, George!

Gee Mike considering all the really cool guitars you see I appreciate it!
Here's the story: Built to my spec's by Bill Nash''Jazzmaster body, reverse headstock, Lollar P-90's and one of his blackface strat pups in the middle...special switching to combine neck and bridge..graphtech saddles. I asked bill to do a Shag/Tiki theme and left the design up to him..as long as he included some of the Shag skulls ...he applied decals under the clear coat of witch doctors and skulls most with jeweled eyes...he encased a vibrato bar in a piece of bamboo, added wood control knobs and even drilled a small hole at the top of the headstock to stick a paper umbrella in (umbrellas included)...P-90's are the first choice for most surf guitar players but I like them a lot...