Fender sends cease and desist to PRS

[Boubou]

Fender has sent a cease and desist letter to PRS
“The company disagrees with Fender’s assessment”: PRS has been hit by a cease-and-desist from Fender – bringing John Mayer’s Silver Sky into the center of the S-style legal dispute

No way they can win, I mean all Fender guitars need to be worked on before they are playable, all PRS guitars are playable out of the box, they are not even comparable. Just sayin!

 

[Thatbastarddon]

Everybody and their mothers makes a Strat copy…PRS only cop’s the body and pickup configuration…no real trade dress, other than that.
If Fender wins, what happens to all the others?…

 

[Boubou]

Everybody and their mothers makes a Strat copy…PRS only cop’s the body and pickup configuration…no real trade dress, other than that.
If Fender wins, what happens to all the others?…

In the world of legal trade dispute, the PRS body is nothing like the Fender Strat, but lets see what the court decides.

 

[DirtySteve]

In the world of legal trade dispute, the PRS body is nothing like the Fender Strat, but lets see what the court decides.

That's what I think.

 

[67plexi]

Never played a Silver Sky I do like my core PRS guitars and my PRE CBS Fenders
It is funny how the U-tubers are getting their panties in a bunch

 

[Far Rider]

A Strat is a Strat
Everything else is just a poor copy

 

[bea]

Well, just had a look at the Silver Sky. IMO indeed an improvement of the strat ... shape of the lower cutaway.

Anyway: it is a formal question juristically, and it is indeed questionable that a design could be copyrighted 70 years after its appearance. And the question is not an easy one as soon as some court will handle that subject in detail (which has not been the case in the Düsseldorf decision!).

To me the most problematic in the current situation is that Fender's description of their guitar is so general that they could extend it on many other shapes with a rough similarity of a strat, such as a powerstrat or st-like guitars without pickguards.

And if Fender succeeds with the strat this will open the door for the others: Gibson with at least SG, LP Junior DC, Explorer, V, Moderne, Fender with Tele, Mustang, Jazzmaster, Strandberg and Klein with their very uniqe shapes...

Unfortunately the court in Düsseldorf published 10 pages without setting limits on what a Strat like body as a piece of art might be and what it might NOT be.

 

[bea]

Fender has sent a cease and desist letter to PRS
“The company disagrees with Fender’s assessment”: PRS has been hit by a cease-and-desist from Fender – bringing John Mayer’s Silver Sky into the center of the S-style legal dispute

No way they can win, I mean all Fender guitars need to be worked on before they are playable, all PRS guitars are playable out of the box, they are not even comparable. Just sayin!

But the strat has been regarded a piece of modern applied art which deserved protection (until 70 years after Leo's death, btw...) Which does not per se imply that it needs to be playable as a guitar.

 

[Boubou]

But the strat has been regarded a piece of modern applied art which deserved protection (until 70 years after Leo's death, btw...) Which does not per se imply that it needs to be playable as a guitar.

My experience in the pharmaceutical industry is that all these claims are good until challenged in court, then they fall.
Also, I wonder about the art thing, doesn’t it belong to Leo’s estate and not Fender?
Patent,yes can be sold but art protection??

 

[Far Rider]

If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then the Stratocaster is the most beloved guitar in the world.

 

[dmatthews]

If Fender wanted to go after PRS they could have done it in the 90s because of the EG3
If Fender wanted to go after PRS they could have done it in the 2000s because of the DC3

But no... Fender ignored their biggest advocate/player John Mayer when he wanted to make improvements on his Sig. So Mayer took his desires and talent to PRS and helped bring the Silver Sky to fruition.
It was a huge hit obviously and I bought one when it came out in 2018.
When the Silver Sky SE version came out there was no ignoring the fact that the model had smashed all sales records on Reverb and elsewhere. How embarrassing for Fender to see all those stats as they now own Reverb.

Fender 100% shot themselves in their own foot, like it or not, and crying about it is utterly worthless.
NOBODY with a modicum of synaptic activity is going to walk into a music store and mistake a Silver Sky for a Strat. Not gonna happen. The lawsuit is a loser/lame duck immediately.

Make no mistake... I am NOT a Fender hater. I WAS going to buy an Eric Clapton Strat in 2010 before I found a PRS 305. Fender makes some awesome guitars. They should make their Strats BETTER and STFU.

There is no one/single thing that satisfies all comers, so people should buy/love/play what suits them. It's all good. The Fender butthurt does nothing for anyone.

 

[gball]

I can see both sides of this argument so won't delve into that. To me though, there is little chance of anyone mistaking a Silver Sky for a Stratocaster so this is much ado about nothing for the actual guitar-buying public.

I've played the Core SS's and they fine in that way that I find PRS' are always fine: refined to the point of being boring, which to me uninspiring. I'll take my Fenders over that any day, so they have not lost me as a customer.