AndreS wrote:How is it that companies such as Bulldog can build Les Paul Kits and not catch trouble over it?
The same goes for Fender style products? Like King Bee guitars or anything
Saga and mighty mite sell licensed Fender replacement necks, so they are good.
I will pretense this by saying I am not a lawyer.
As for Bulldog and other DIY companies.... those are guitar kits... and parts - not complete guitars. They aren't selling anything that says Gibson on it. The "Open Book" headstock might be the only issue there. BUT in court, a defense would be that no person in their right mind would ever mistake a Bulldog or other LP replica from a real Gibson brand guitar because of x, y, and z reasons. Again, it's a defense - not a right.
Many companies sell "single-cut" solidbody guitars. Not kits, but fully assembled working ones. When a lawsuit comes, they're pretty much just forced to change their headstock shape. And I'm not speaking about the China copies, I'm talking the ESP's that that were made for Metallica in the early 90's, and the Ibanez clones from the 70's, etc.
In lawsuit cases with guitar kits, the most logical way for Gibson to do is to lean on them with a phone call, saying "at least change your headstock or legal action could take place."
Contrary to what we might think, DIY guitar kits are a small but upcoming market... not everyone can do this stuff, let alone do it well. A lawsuit could get costly and I don't think they want to bother unless that corner of the market really blew up and people started putting Gibson logos all over them with outstanding quality. Something I don't think will or would happen soon.
- Nic from Detroit...
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