Ok so Tell me what you guys get out of this...

J

JamesL

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"FMIC (Fender Musical Instrument Corp) reserves its rights to enforce it's trademark and other rights relating to the head profiles of the heads of guitars, basses and necks against anyone who places or knowingly participates in the placement of replacement necks (Warmoth necks) on guitars or basses not made or sold by FMIC or who incorporates them in guitar or bass kits not made or sold by FMIC."
:icon_scratch: :tard:

 
Holy sh*t, does that mean we're not supposed to put Warmoth strat necks on Warmoth bodies?
 
It means you can't use Fender's trademarked shapes.

unless of course you have something like this.....  http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/fender_lic.pdf
 
Fenders licence seems to infer that they allow their trademark necks to be sold as replacement components and not as part of a "kit" for a complete guitar. So too their body designs. If you build, for example, a strat clone and consign it for sale in your cousins guitar store Fender can and probably will tell your cousin to get your guitar off the wall or he will be in breach of his dealers agreement. Warmoth are merely selling parts in accordance with their agreement with Fender. It's up to us customers how we use those parts so unless you want to become the new Tokai I wouldn't worry too much.

 
willyk said:
Fenders licence seems to infer that they allow their trademark necks to be sold as replacement components and not as part of a "kit" for a complete guitar. So too their body designs. If you build, for example, a strat clone and consign it for sale in your cousins guitar store Fender can and probably will tell your cousin to get your guitar off the wall or he will be in breach of his dealers agreement. Warmoth are merely selling parts in accordance with their agreement with Fender. It's up to us customers how we use those parts so unless you want to become the new Tokai I wouldn't worry too much.
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2 clarifications:

1)    The Store is an Authorized Fender Dealer, in which case, Fender can pull the line due to breach of contract, or simply instruct  the dealer to remove the instrument.  I don't think Fender can walk into any Mom and Pop store that is not a Fender Dealer & instruct them to do anything.

2)    The guitar must not be marked with an aftermarket "Fender" label such as is buyable on Ebay.  This is to avoid "confusion in the marketplace".  Fender doesn't want someone passing off a non-Fender manufactured guitar to deceive people as if it were an actual Fender, even if the build quality is equal to or better than that of Fender's manufacturing quality standards.

 
I build my Warmoth's for me...I would never think of selling one.  Problem solved!
 
Tony; clarification 1 is perfectly correct. However Fender have copyrighted the headstock shape so the presence or otherwise of a Fender logo or indeed a Warmoth, WillyK, Flying Squirrel or anything else on the headstock would still result in the guitar being pulled in a Fender dealer store.
I'm with 'louie, it's not a problem for me but if anyone had ideas about commercial production they would have to use a different headstock.
 
So Warmoth must be paying Fender a certain fee per each neck sold, That's understandable.

I've read the agreement, and it says nothing about bodies, which leads me to believe that the "Strat" shape is not copyrighted by anyone and is in fact public domain.

So you could easily start your own guitar business with Warmoth parts, but with a different headstock.

I wonder if you can special order necks and bodies without the damn stamp in the necks and bodies, there are these foolish tone freaks out there that avoid warmoth only because of the stamps in the neck and neck pocket. Serious!
 
They cant do a thing if its marketed as a used instrument.  A store is free to accept any instrument, previously owned, and present it as used, not new, regardless.

This has come up with stores, who's agreements specify X amount of wallspace shall be brand (whatever).  When a store had more - other brand - guitars, they got in hooch.  It has been ruled that its a restriction of trade to say what the store can and cannot sell as used instruments, since brand (whatever) only manufactures and sells new instruments.
 
What this means is ... stores can, and do, take in parts-casters as used guitars, but cannot offer them as new.  There are some ways around it... selling "as-new" for instance.
 
FMIC (Fender Musical Instrument Corp) reserves its rights to enforce it's trademark and other rights relating to the head profiles of the heads of guitars, basses and necks against anyone who places or knowingly participates in the placement of replacement necks (Warmoth necks) on guitars or basses not made or sold by FMIC or who incorporates them in guitar or bass kits not made or sold by FMIC."

I take it to mean that:
1)strat and tele bodies aren't trade marked!
2)The headstock is trademarked.  As such, you can't sell guitars with fender replacement headstocks as a  business. (I infer that from the use of the word "necks" when they could've said "neck".  So clearly the hobbiest like ourselves are safe, and can sell the guitar if we like down the road.
3)Unless you get permission, you can't use warmoth fender necks, assemble them into kits, and sell the kit, without permission.
 
JamesL said:
"FMIC (Fender Musical Instrument Corp) reserves its rights to enforce it's trademark and other rights relating to the head profiles of the heads of guitars, basses and necks against anyone who places or knowingly participates in the placement of replacement necks (Warmoth necks) on guitars or basses not made or sold by FMIC or who incorporates them in guitar or bass kits not made or sold by FMIC."
:icon_scratch: :tard:
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I would imagine thatprecisely why warmoth no longer makes the ehhhum....**cough**evh/vw**cough :dontknow:
 
I don't think the two are related at all. The VW was killed by Ernie Ball, not Fender. Moreover, W makes a whole slew of bodies not related to Fender designs. I wonder if W has the same sort of licensing agreement with Gibson?  :dontknow:
 
ildar said:
I don't think the two are related at all. The VW was killed by Ernie Ball, not Fender. Moreover, W makes a whole slew of bodies not related to Fender designs. I wonder if W has the same sort of licensing agreement with Gibson?  :dontknow:
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I didn't mean Fender had anything to do with it, I ment the fact that W didn't have the licensing agreement with EB, but they evidently do with Fender......n'k r we square now? :toothy11:
 
I think it's a longstanding convention in the guitar world that headstock shapes are trademarked, but bodies aren't.  There's some logic for this; bodies are ergonomically important and designers will tend to arrive at similar shapes (you need one ot two cutaways to reach the higher frets and some sort of "waist" so you can play the thing sitting down).  Headstocks, on the other hand, can be any shape and not affect function, provided you have somewhere to fix the tuners.
 
"I wonder if W has the same sort of licensing agreement with Gibson?"
Probably not...
If you liook closely at the LP headstock, it's slightly different from an actual Gibson..
 
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