Gibson denied opportunity to appeal court ruling that its ES body shape is generic – but the final terms of its legal victory over Dean have been laid down
The long-running legal battle between Gibson and Dean Guitars’ parent company Armadillo has come to a close, after several revivals and attempts at adjusting the final outcome by both parties. With a new filing last month, the presiding judge reasserted Dean’s loss, but, in a major blow to the brand, denied Gibson’s appeal for a new trial to appeal the ES trademark being made generic.
READ MORE: Gibson triumphs in revived trademark case against Dean – but could lose its ES trademark
The beginning of the end for the long-running case came in March 2025, when a jury entered an opinion that essentially reasserted Dean’s initial defeat. As with the ruling of a different jury in 2021, Dean/Armadillo was found to have counterfeited a number of Gibson trademarks, and could no longer advertise or sell the infringing guitars. In the 2025 ruling, these were found to be the Dean Gran Sport, Dean V, and Dean Z guitars, which infringed on the Gibson SG, Gibson Flying V and Gibson Explorer respectively. This was, again, a major blow to Dean’s lineup, with the V and the Z in particular being flagship models for the brand.
But it was still not a victory without cost for Gibson. The new jury found that Dean only owed Gibson $1 in damages (plus around $170,000 in legal fees), while also agreeing with one of Dean’s claims – it ruled that Gibson’s trademark for the ES body shape should be made generic. Gibson made its intent to appeal this clear, however, the latest filing – the one made in February 2026 – has struck down this attempt to appeal. No new trial regarding this will be held.
As judge Amos L Mazzant puts it in the filing, “The Court finds that the jury’s verdict that the ES Body Shape Design was generic as of 1996 is not against the great weight of the evidence […] Plaintiff is again asking the Court to substitute its wisdom for the collective wisdom of the jury – the Court refuses to do so. […] Indeed, contrary to Plaintiff’s arguments otherwise, there was ample evidence to support the jury’s finding that the ES Body Shape Design is generic.”
This reiterates what was made clear in the final judgement back in September – that there was ample evidence to suggest the generic status of the ES body shape, and there is not enough of a gulf between the obvious implications of what the expert witnesses presented and the jury’s conclusions to warrant anyone even attempting to overturn the ruling.
Some other important decisions were made in the final order – Gibson had requested that Dean’s damages be tripled to over $500,000, but this was ruled as unnecessarily punitive. However, Gibson has been allowed to charge Dean interest on the initial amount – a daily rate of 3.61% from the date of the final judgement, 22 September 2025, compounded annually. This means an extra few thousand dollars from Dean to Gibson.
Can other brands now make an ES-shaped guitar?
The ruling on the ES shape changes less than you might assume. It is still a very big deal for a company so protective of its IP to lose a body shape, but materially not that much changes for most builders. The ES body shape is, now, legally speaking no longer Gibson’s – but, crucially, only in the US, and just as crucially, Gibson still possess a plethora of other trademarks related to its original guitars, and makes no secret of its intent to use them. The headstock design is still very much trademarked, and the ES word mark is also still in play. And so the ruling in no way opens the door to full ES-335 clones marketed as such.
Any litigation surrounding a would-be clone or counterfeit can technically no longer consider just the body outline. However, Gibson still holds the ES shape in a number of other territories, including the EU – and so even if a new guitar only used the body shape, you could only really safely advertise and sell your new ES-shaped guitar in the US, and even then you’re flying pretty close to the sun.
What does this mean for Dean?
The main new impact of the case’s closure for Dean is purely monetary. It has now been ordered to pay Gibson that $168,399.22 amount – plus that interest since 22 September 2025. There is also another amount that will likely not be public – the final ruling states that “that all costs of court spent or incurred in this cause are adjudged against Armadillo.” How much that is is unclear.
Dean has, however, already been legally barred from marketing or selling its Gran Sport, V and Z guitars, ever since that ruling in 2022. This much stays the same with the closure of the case, and the brand has time to refocus its efforts. In the years since Dean has pivoted to new guitars with its ML body shape, and new Kerry King signature models – these have undoubtedly been the most actively marketed of Dean’s guitars of the last couple of years.
The long-term impact on Dean of paying the above legal fees, alongside the loss of some of its most notable guitars, remains to be seen. We do know that so far it has not been a death-blow as some have suspected – although there are other storms Dean has had to weather since the beginning of this case, not least losing one of its most notable signature artists, and some years of rather chaotic leadership changes and a separate set of ensuing legal kerfuffles.
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
