Protecting Guitar Design

ANTWON

Not too sure if this is the right place for this thread.I have recently designed a shape for a guitar body loosely based on a guitar thats already been designed (not exact though) and was wondering how would I go about protecting my idea? eg Patent, any help would be great, Thanks.

Demeyes

I think most people don't really protect their design. Patents and the like are really for new inventions or innovations if I recall so a different shape guitar might not even be coverable. Even if they are, going down that roads costs a fortune if you want protection in many countries.
Most people build their designs and if popular they will be associated with that brand. There are still loads of people that build copies and get away with it all the same.

Bluefoam

So, you copied someone else's design (albeit loosely) and now you want to protect it against anyone copying it...?


You can't patent it, as it doesn't sound as though you have added any innovation to improve or add benefit to the design.

You could look into copyrighting it. It will cost you €100,000's, you will need multiple solicitors and lawyers around the world who you will require to research local markets and register copyrights in each country/jurisdiction. Then you will be required to defend your copyright with further €100,000's if someone does produce a similar design. At this stage it will be treated differently and each judge in each jurisdiction will decide whether you can claim to own that particular desgn for a shape of a guitar. If there is any prior art for a relatively similar design (such as, for instance) the guitar you copied.... Your case will be thown out, and you will be left to pay your substantial legal and court bills, as well as those of the other party...

Ravelleman

Copyright schmopyright. Don't even bother. We'll just find a way to download your guitar from the Pirate Bay, while we're downloading dinner.

goblin59

theres no point, most guitar companies won't even bother looking at it.

the reason for this is that they cant risk using your "design" incase its too similar to another company's design and get in legal trouble for it.

They only take in proposals from their own design team who are trained to look out and make sure they dont cross the legal line.

I'v had first hand experience in this, when trying to just give away (for free) a guitar design i made, and the above was pretty much said by a few major companies including BC rich.

firefly08

You could look into copyrighting it. It will cost you €100,000's, you will need multiple solicitors and lawyers around the world who you will require to research local markets and register copyrights in each country/jurisdiction.

There is no such thing as "copyrighting" in that sense. If you create something that is copyrightable material then you are automatically the copyright holder in most countries, by international convention. Many countries offer a copyright registration service, which might cost you some money, but it does not affect your ownership of the copyright.

Then you will be required to defend your copyright with further €100,000's if someone does produce a similar design

This is nearer the mark; the way copyright often works is, you catch someone ripping you off, spend a fortune trying to get a court order stopping them while you sue them (which costs even more), then you eventually settle for royalties. You need a lot of financial backing up front for that.

An alternative would be to do what Gibson did with their designs: register the shapes as trademarks. A trademark has to be registered but once it is it can't be used by a competitor. However, even then, it has not been enough to stop other companies from copying Gibson's most famous designs. They have sued PRS and ESP over the Les Paul and Explorer desgins respectively, but I don't think they had much success.

The good news is that no one will be interested in copying your design until you it's popular. When that time comes, they'll probably be more willing to negotiate with you to avoid lawsuits.