Question Again a 4+2 headstock ... Copyright infringement ?

[fbecir]

I just find this :

Here is the site : Michael Lewis Guitars

 

[lenny]

yip i would say...Wonderdog!!!

 

[Kaloyan]

Any 4+2 is protected by EBMM?

 

[fbecir]

Any 4+2 is protected by EBMM?

Yes it is protected :
http://www.ernieball.com/forums/mus...struments-instruments-general.html#post509338

 

[fbecir]

What Wonderdog says :
http://www.ernieball.com/forums/mus...struments-instruments-general.html#post509549

 

[ProtoChicken]

I've always been curious about this. The 4+2 is protected but I assume the 2+4 isn't as Brian Moore guitars have been using that configuration for at least 15 years?

 

[Pablo]

Call me crazy, but it would take a blind man to confuse that for an EBMM... I absolutely understand wanting to protect intelectual property, but TO ME this seems a tad silly, as there really is nothing even remotely MusicMan-ish about that guitar. But again: when there's a copyright, there's a copyright.

Cheers

Eske

 

[Big Poppa]

eske thanks for your legal opinion....

 

[koogie2k]

Call me crazy, but it would take a blind man to confuse that for an EBMM... I absolutely understand wanting to protect intelectual property, but TO ME this seems a tad silly, as there really is nothing even remotely MusicMan-ish about that guitar. But again: when there's a copyright, there's a copyright.

Cheers

Eske

I see what you are saying. I personally, because I know an Ebmm, would not confuse his. However, we the general public, do not know what that copyright entails. That is a business thing that pops and company have been doing for many years. Something we all do not have privy to. That is where the lawyers and what not get involved. I believe it infringes.. But Wonderdog is the one that would reaaly know for sure. That is why he gets paid the big $$$$.

 

[Pablo]

eske thanks for your legal opinion....

You're welcome we Europeans are a cumbersome bunch, aeh?

Cheers

Eske

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

Simply put, the 4+2 and 3+1 headstocks are a trademark belonging to Ernie Ball, in the USA and in various other countries. Any other company marketing a guitar/bass with the 4+2 or 3+1 headstock in the US or those other countries is committing trademark infringement.

 

[the24thfret]

EB also copyrighted martinis, from now on every bar has to put olives in them with the eb logo

 

[jamminjim]

I wish you guys would get it right for a change - it's either patented or trademarked - NOT copyright. Pete or others are always stepping in and straightening you out. Go to someplace like wikipedia and read about the differences. Thank you.

neophytes!

 

[Jack FFR1846]

I wish you guys would get it right for a change - it's either patented or trademarked - NOT copyright. Pete or others are always stepping in and straightening you out. Go to someplace like wikipedia and read about the differences. Thank you.

neophytes!

And then there is "Trade Dress"........

 

[ProtoChicken]

I was talking to my dad who is a torts attorney about trademark issues (I think the conversation had to do with Coca Cola), and he explained to me, assuming my dullard lefty brain understood correctly, that if companies don't defend their trademarks when infringement issues occur they risk loosing the ability to claim it as their own.

So if a company keeps letting infringements slide and then one day decides they want to take action, the courts may tell them that too much time has passed and too many other people our doing it for them to now try to claim infringement.

I'm sure there is lots more to it than that and I've probably jumbled some of it, but I think that was the gist of it. Just another thing to consider when people say "but xxxxx is such a big company, why do they care if a small company has infringed".

 

[LawDaddy]

Hey guys, I am an intellectual property lawyer, a registered patent attorney to be exact. I am not associated with EBMM in any way so I will not opine on the issues raised here.

However, I have seen comments from threads like this used in legal proceedings before. I have had to deal with comment threads in patent cases, so I feel compelled to make one small point.

The comments here by EBMM's customers here could be found relevant in a trade mark/trade dress proceeding, and a seemingly harmless bit of speculation by a forum member regarding what a particular poster deemed protectable/not protectable/silly etc. could come back to haunt EBMM at some point, and cost BP lots of $$$ to have his attorneys explain it in court someday.

Accordingly, I would encourage forum members to refrain from random lay speculation on legal matters, and leave the enforcement efforts to EBMM's esteemed counsel.

Hope this helps,

-Tim

 

[ScoobySteve]

EB also copyrighted martinis, from now on every bar has to put olives in them with the eb logo

I lol'd

 

[sixtyfour]

Hey guys, I am an intellectual property lawyer, a registered patent attorney to be exact. I am not associated with EBMM in any way so I will not opine on the issues raised here.

However, I have seen comments from threads like this used in legal proceedings before. I have had to deal with comment threads in patent cases, so I feel compelled to make one small point.

The comments here by EBMM's customers here could be found relevant in a trade mark/trade dress proceeding, and a seemingly harmless bit of speculation by a forum member regarding what a particular poster deemed protectable/not protectable/silly etc. could come back to haunt EBMM at some point, and cost BP lots of $$$ to have his attorneys explain it in court someday.

Accordingly, I would encourage forum members to refrain from random lay speculation on legal matters, and leave the enforcement efforts to EBMM's esteemed counsel.

Hope this helps,

-Tim

Good advice, Tim. I was just shooting the breeze and didn't think about that. I deleted my comments.

 

[Big Poppa]

thank you Tim!

 

[Stratty316]

EB also copyrighted martinis, from now on every bar has to put olives in them with the eb logo

No, that was Gene Simmons who did that... notice the KISS logo