Fender wins legal battle over Stratocaster shape in Germany – is it the end for S-type guitars in the EU?
Fender has claimed victory in a recent intellectual property case in Germany against a Chinese guitar manufacturer, stating that its win in the case sets a new legal precedent that strengthens Fender’s protection over the Stratocaster shape.
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The case was against the Chinese-based Yiwu Philharmonic Musical Instruments Co., and took place in the Düsseldorf Regional Court in Germany. According to Fender, the decision made by the court agrees with Fender’s claim that the company had imported guitars that “reproduced” Fender’s Stratocaster body design, and that the design in question is not just a functional trademark but is instead a “a copyrighted work of applied art”, according to German and European law.
Aarash Darroodi, Fender’s general counsel and chief administrative officer, said in a press release: “This ruling is a meaningful affirmation of the Stratocaster as an original creative work and an important step in continuing to protect the integrity of Fender’s designs and intellectual property. It reinforces our commitment to originality, supports fair competition, and helps ensure that when players encounter these iconic Fender guitar shapes, they can trust the craftsmanship, quality, and heritage behind them.”
While the ruling is clearly bad news for Yiwu – a Chinese maker that seems to primarily sell budget guitars and other instruments via AliExpress and other online marketplaces – the potential wider impact of the case is yet to be tested.
Importantly, Backstagepro.de reports that the judgement was not as a result of the sort of lengthy legal battle that has characterised many recent trademark disputes in the guitar world, but was instead a default judgement. In effect, the defendant did not respond to a summons, and sent no legal representation to defend and therefore did not appear to defend itself in court.
This could have major implications on how much precedent is set – the decision is enforceable against Yiwu Philharmonic Musical Instruments, and theoretically against others, but a default judgement does mean that Fender’s claims have not yet faced any legal counterarguments.
In practice, this means that if Fender were to attempt to use this decision against another manufacturer that sought to challenge the ruling in court, it would face a much more thorough proceeding to establish why the design is more than just a standard trademark.
Fender may also have to draw out a clearer distinction between a guitar that, as Fender argues Yiwu did, “reproduces” the Stratocaster body, and a non-infringing “S-type” guitar.
A related case happened very recently in the US, with the loss of Gibson’s ES trademark despite an overall victory over Dean in a long-running trademark dispute. The ES body shape was ruled generic because expert witnesses for both Dean and Gibson admitted that many guitar manufacturers have used the shape in the years since its introduction – a potential argument surrounding the Stratocaster body shape could see similar claims being made.
Regardless, the speculation does not change the fact that the ruling is very much enforceable. Yiwu Philharmonic Musical Instruments Co. is now legally prohibited from “manufacturing, offering, or distributing” guitars featuring the Stratocaster body shape in Germany and the EU, and could face large fines or even prison time if the fines are not able to be enforced. Whether that will apply to other brands who import similar guitars is unclear, however Fender does now have a stronger legal precedent it can use to protect the design.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
