Fender sues Yamaha now........ Come in, vote and voice your opinions*_*

[rsm]

While, I am torn on the issue, and do recognize that Fender owns the Strat... there is a question that I don't see anyone asking.

The S shape is a fairly ubiquitous design, its almost synonymous to the instrument, much like the shapes of brass instruments, or orchestral instruments, or drums, or pianos. At what point does this grow beyond the Fender Strat and just become a default electric guitar shape?

Strat and Tele shapes have been ubiquitous for decades, that's a settled issue and why FEnder wasn't able to get body shapes patented decades ago, which was still decades after the designs were created. Fender waited too long to defend their ownership, and allowed copies for decades without protecting their designs.

The other example is Rickenbacker. They vigorously defended and protected their guitar designs legally, quickly and immediately; and they still do today.

What's new now is the European Court ruling on artistic design or whatever it was....I looked it up a few days ago and posted about it, some Swedish table design and another storage furniture...they were awarded copyrights on their functional/artistic designs. This ruling was in 2025 IIRC.

I'm no legal expert, but if you look at the table and storage furniture, I don't see anything special or unique....but if I applied that to a Strat or Tele body shape I can definitely see it clearly...


Asplund v. Mio)—ruling that originality depends strictly on an author’s free and creative choices rather than functional needs or overall visual impressions.

now consider that and objectively apply that to a Strat, Tele, offset, or a Gibson Flying V....