"Lawsuit " basses....... cite your references

[DiabolusInMusic]

It may be browser history dependent. Go to the base site Search Trademark Database | USPTO click Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS), then "Word and/or Design Mark (Structured)", then you should get a form that has a Search Term box and a Field pull-down menu allowing the Owner choice. I suggested doing it this way because otherwise you get a lot more chaff that has any random occurrence of Rickenbacker anywhere in the trademark application. It may not be as simple as Google, but the government did make this entire database available freely.

For example I was eventually able to get to this: Invalid Link Removed which, if it works, appears to be the Rick headstock (and if it doesn't, just try to find trademark number 75721968).

That link says Rickenbacker handed out some kind of legal suit in 2012. It doesn't give any more info other than that but it does give their attorney's information. I am sure he would love to explain it for $400/hour.

 

[Eilif]

I would add also, that "Lawsuit" is additionally vague because much of the anecdotes you hear -even from people directly involved- go something like "we were doing ______ and then we were contacted by ______ so we stopped doing _____ ". "Contact" can be anything from a call from the company to chat, to a lawyer writing up a C&D and none of that will wind up in a court docket or other public record. The upshot is that a "Lawsuit" over particular visual aspects of instrument design seem fairly rare. What seems to be much more common is that a company is threatened -implicitly or explicitly- with a lawsuit so they changed things.

It seems likely that you wont find "Lawsuit" evidence connected to the disappearance of most copy instruments because either the threat of one was enough to dissuade their continuance or the company saw the way the wind was blowing and discontinued them on their own.

 

[reddesert]

That link says Rickenbacker handed out some kind of legal suit in 2012. It doesn't give any more info other than that but it does give their attorney's information. I am sure he would love to explain it for $400/hour.

If you click on the "prosecution history" tab, which is I think what you're referring to, it shows a timeline of the trademark registration process. RIC applied for a trademark on the headstock in 1999 and it wended its way through various publications, registrations, and renewals. I don't know if a "notice of suit" in the particular case of trademarks means there was actually a lawsuit, or has a specific technical meaning - I am not a lawyer. In any case, I don't think it is really interesting what lawsuits RIC may have filed, but someone wanted to know what parts of the design Rickenbacker has actually trademarked, and the USPTO trademark database allows you to find them.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

If you click on the "prosecution history" tab, which is I think what you're referring to, it shows a timeline of the trademark registration process. RIC applied for a trademark on the headstock in 1999 and it wended its way through various publications, registrations, and renewals. I don't know if a "notice of suit" in the particular case of trademarks means there was actually a lawsuit, or has a specific technical meaning - I am not a lawyer. In any case, I don't think it is really interesting what lawsuits RIC may have filed, but someone wanted to know what parts of the design Rickenbacker has actually trademarked, and the USPTO trademark database allows you to find them.

Hold on, I'll get one.

@buldog5151bass we need some clarification here!

 

[buldog5151bass]

Trademark is not my area of expertise, but I've gone through this in my baseball bat business.

9/22/99 their trademark application was assigned to an examiner
9/11/01, the mark was published, giving others the opportunity to oppose the mark registration
12/4/01, the mark was granted, so there were no successful challenges.
11/27/07 they filed notice that they were still using the mark - if they did not do that, they could lose it. Same thing 12/3/11 - it has to be done after 5 and 10 years - you can see that in the next section.

If you look under "documents", Ric filed suit against Waterstone Guitars, I assume for infringing on their protected intellectual property (the trademark). Under decision/judgment, it says there was an Order with a consent judgment, which I assume means the parties came to a resolution.

@DiabolusInMusic That's as good as you are going to get at 10:00pm during the World Series. I'll take a new Tonehammer head as my legal fee.

 

[buldog5151bass]

It was filed in California 9/7/11, and the consent was filed 11/29/11. Looks like they came to a fast resolution.

 

[P A U L]

Ibanez - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(sued by Norlin -settled out of court)

Takamine Guitars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(3rd paragraph - suit never filed)

Other than that, it's folklore...

People throw around the term "lawsuit" because they think it gives their inferior instrument a premium value on the used market. If I see an instrument for sale w/ the term "lawsuit" attached, it's immediately a sign to tell them to knock off a few hundred dollars, if I'm even interested...

My 2¢...

 

[Bill Thompson]

Here are my lawsuits. Both basses were made by Fernandes. The first is a copy of Jaco's Jazz. The second is a copy of Billy Sheehan's 'wife' Fender. Both are unauthorized copies, bought in Japan.