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more "replica" madness.. CL content


-Assy-

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The answer is YES .. that is illegal.

 

making low cost alternatives is allowed under 2 conditions ...

 

1) Any protected trademark shapes or styles are not duplicated Exactly.

The reason you see AGILE and others (such as my company) able to sell affordable alternatives is because things like the Fender Strat BODY and Gibson SG/LP body shape were never properly trademarked years back and thus courts have decided this basic shape can not now be trademarked after the fact.

 

However, headstock and logos are still protected for most companies

 

2) The second condition is that you can NOT misrepresent or make it appear that the product you are selling is made by another company.

In other words, your product must CLEARLY by indentifiable as NOT being a product from another company.

 

Thus .... a Les Paul inspired guitar that is labeled AGILE or TUSCANY is legal.

A "replica" that goes so far as putting the GIBSON name on the headstock is ILLEGAL !

The reason being, a consumer could easily be fooled into mistaking the replica for an actual Gibson product and thus misrepresentation is an issue.

 

So YES, you will see many companies who LEGALLY sell copies of famous shape guitars

 

But something like you posted here is a textbook example of ILLEGAL

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The answer is YES .. that is illegal.


making low cost alternatives is allowed under 2 conditions ...


1) Any protected trademark shapes or styles are not duplicated Exactly.

The reason you see AGILE and others (such as my company) able to sell affordable alternatives is because things like the Fender Strat BODY and Gibson SG/LP body shape were never properly trademarked years back and thus courts have decided this basic shape can not now be trademarked after the fact.


However, headstock and logos are still protected for most companies


2) The second condition is that you can NOT misrepresent or make it appear that the product you are selling is made by another company.

In other words, your product must CLEARLY by indentifiable as NOT being a product from another company.


Thus .... a Les Paul inspired guitar that is labeled AGILE or TUSCANY is legal.

A "replica" that goes so far as putting the GIBSON name on the headstock is ILLEGAL !

The reason being, a consumer could easily be fooled into mistaking the replica for an actual Gibson product and thus misrepresentation is an issue.


So YES, you will see many companies who LEGALLY sell copies of famous shape guitars


But something like you posted here is a textbook example of ILLEGAL

 

 

That's the deal, for sure...

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Not sure why you want to report him to the police, it's not like he's passing it off as the real deal.

 

At least he's honest about it. Don't see what all the hatin' is on this if someone from the start states it's a replica. Different matter if they are passing it off as the real deal...

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oh, sorry i dont have sympathy for people breaking the law. my bad.

:facepalm:

 

how does he know its breaking the law?

 

Hes not lying about it. He probably thinks hes i the clear. Plus calling the cops does 2 things. Wastes your tax money getting them off their asses to collect a guitar, and then wastes more of your tax money to get them to tell gibson and see if gibson files a suit or charges, which thye wont.

 

Stop witch hunting.

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oh, sorry i dont have sympathy for people breaking the law. my bad.

:facepalm:

 

Me neither. When I see someone driving around with no safety belt on, I follow them til they stop and them beat them half to death with a baseball bat for not following the law.

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Come on....

 

It's a private party selling what he freely admits is a REPLICA!!

 

So, are you guy saying that if we own counterfit guitars, we can no longer make party-to-party sales? And so, now were going to start policing other players? This is starting to look like political correctness run amok and calling the cops is totaly uncalled for.

 

Leave the guy alone!!!

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it is still contraband, and he is selling it, that makes it illegal, regardless of what he advertises it as...


im very positive it is illegal to bootleg dvds, then sell them as "bootlegged dvds", right?

Bootlegs DVDs are a copyright violation, not a trademark violation.

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Not only that, trademark violations are a civil dispute, not a criminal one, so it makes no sense to run around, screaming that it's contraband. It's just idiotic to get all wound up over it.


Oh, and trafficking trademark infringing material is perfectly legal for everybody except the party who produced it to begin with.

 

 

uh....no

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