Gibson confirms exclusive rights to trademarked guitar designs

Gibson has announced that it has successfully confirmed the exclusive rights to various trademarked body and headstock designs. The MI manufacturer now has exclusive rights to the design of its iconic ES, SG, Flying V and Explorer guitar models. The news comes as a result of a legal dispute and settlement with John Hornby Skewes and Co. (JHS). As part of the agreement, JHS acknowledges Gibson’s exclusive rights to these products and designs after being sued for trademark infringement. While other specific terms of the agreement are confidential, Gibson has said it is “pleased with the result”.

Last week, Law360 reported on the first day of the trial in downtown Los Angeles, where Gibson’s attorney  gave an opening statement accusing JHS of “knowingly and internationally infringing six trademarks” and “lying to Gibson about when it started selling the alleged copies”. The representitive for JHS, told the jury that many companies have used the allegedly unique trademarked guitar shapes over the decades  and that guitar customers know to look at the brand name on the headstock of a guitar to know who made it and not rely just on its shape.

“The problem here is that these outlines of body shapes and headstocks of guitars have been used by so many different companies for the last half century that they don’t belong to anyone. They’re just standard shapes used by the industry,”