Very interesting indeed. It seems that Fender's various legal teams really dropped the ball since day one....straight up through that legal proceeding.
Readers Digest version:
- They never properly attempted to trademark the body styles until it was WAY too late (2003)
- The style had fallen well into the legal definition of "Generic", given current numerous precedents.
- “Cases addressing product design suggest that the term ‘genericness’ covers three situations:
(1) if the definition of a product design is overbroad or too generalized;
(2) if a product design is the basic form of a type of product; or
(3) if the product design is so common in the industry that it cannot be said to identify aparticular source”.
- They protected the headstocks specifically.
- 1990 - Fender, Squier, Sunn, Frontline,Stratocaster...and the head profiles of F.M.I.C.’s classic guitars and basses...are all trademarks of FMIC (McDonald Test. Exh. No. A-148 FMIC000005); (Excerpt from Fenders own catalog)
- Their trademark application was too generic
- It would have been detrimental to WAY too many well established businesses.
- It would be fostering a monopoly
- "Further, “[c]ourts exercise ‘particular caution’ when extending protection to product designs because such claims present an acute risk of stifling competition.”"
- Their case study was biased and flawed
- Exclusion of non guitarists
- Misleading wording
