Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

According to an article in August's PREMIERGuitar (pg. 25) after 161 years Martin received a trademark on their headstock design. I know there has been numerous guitar companies dating back quite a few years that use the same design. Some companies are still producing guitars with this design. I am curious how this will effect the used market and the effects on companies such as Collings that still produce guitars with this design.

Can one call that headstock a design? Rather the absence of design

Interesting that Martin secured their rights on their headstock, so late in the game.

I remember JH had posted an article a year or two ago, about a legal decision and Fender being denied their rights, after so many decades of their own managerial default and not enforcing their own design claims, against all those knock-offs over the decades. IIRC seems that Fender sort of was trapped in the situation of use it or lose it.

Fender's headstock is close to an early Martin and Bigsby design. Both of these were ahead of Fender in the timeline.