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I keep seeing Fender in the headlines. Has a new Stratocaster come out or something?
Well, kinda. According to Fender, thousands of new Stratocasters are coming out every year. Trouble is, they’re being made by other manufacturers.
Ah, this is that cease-and-desist thing. What’s going on?
Earlier this year, Fender mailed out a stack of letters to guitar-builders across the US.
Oh, that’s nice. Why shouldn’t luthiers be penfriends?
The letters were, let’s say, strongly worded. They reportedly ordered those firms to halt production of any guitar that “infringes our client’s copyright in the Stratocaster body shape”.
Which is?
There’s 20-odd design points that make a Strat, but the defining feature is probably the asymmetrical double cutaway and headstock silhouette. Y’know, it’s the quintessential ‘guitar’ shape that your five-year-old nephew doodles on his school exercise book.
Is Fender coming after him too?
Not yet. But multiple builders have confirmed receipt of Fender’s cease-and-desist letter, from giants like PRS to boutique operations including LsL Instruments.
How about B.C. Rich?
No, probably not them.
Hasn’t the Strat been around since 1954? That’s some sluggish legal action.
Well, this isn’t the first time Fender has got litigious. Most recently, they tried to trademark the Strat, Tele and Precision shapes back in 2009. It didn’t work.
So what’s changed?
Back in March, Fender won a case in Germany against a Chinese builder. The US brand says the new copyright decision gives them “enforceable rights” over the Strat shape, at least in the EU. But the MI sector is fighting back: the world’s largest retailer, Thomann, just became the first firm to take legal action against Fender.
So the sue-er has become the sue-ee?
We don’t think those are actual words, but fine.
What are guitar designers supposed to do now?
Admittedly, it’s a head-scratcher. There’s a finite number of forms a guitar can take to work alongside our fundamental human physiology. It can’t exactly be a star shape.
Tell that to Björn from ABBA.
He only played that once, though. It probably pokes you in the armpit.
I play a doublecut. Do I have to hand it in at the police station, like an XL Bully?
Calm down. Fender says “two-horned or double-cutaway” guitars aren’t necessarily targets. And while there was briefly talk of a S-type bonfire, CEO Edward ‘Bud’ Cole now insists existing inventory won’t be destroyed.
How has the guitar blogosphere reacted?
With stoic reflection and measured cool-headedness.
No, seriously.
Fine. With froth-mouthed, bug-eyed, teeth-gnashing hot takes worthy of a Witchfinder General. Some pundits reckon it’s a long-overdue slapdown to a black market crawling with copycat chancers who never had an original idea in their lives. The rest are painting Fender as a bully-boy Godzilla sweeping mom ’n’ pop operations off the map with its big scaly tail.
Does Fender have a point?
Well, that’s debatable. What is the fundamental essence of an electric guitar?
Why are you suddenly talking like Carlos Santana?
We just mean: is a guitar defined by its physical dimensions, or by something more intangible like sound or vibe? Is a Ferrari a copy of a Porsche because both have four wheels and a hedge-fund manager at the wheel?
Are you expecting an answer to that?
No, just something to ponder. We’ll leave the decision to the unfortunate judge who has to sort out this train-wreck when it goes to court...
