Fender, which makes the “Stratocaster” electric guitar made famous by musicians equivalent to Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, has filed a lawsuit in a German court against the instrument retailer Thomann, alleging copyright infringement.
The filing in a regional German court in Düsseldorf this week comes after Fender won copyright protection in Europe for the Strat in March, because the guitar model is known as by musicians.
Fender argues that the Harley Benton-brand guitars developed and sold by Thomann, certainly one of its largest global retail partners, copy the classic Strat shape.
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In May, Fender sent cease-and-desist letters to a spread of corporations, including Yamaha, the world’s largest instrument maker, asking them to stop manufacturing and selling Strat lookalikes headed for Europe.
Thomann didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Strat-shaped instruments have been sold by manufacturers large and small at various price points for many years, with the form becoming so ubiquitous that it serves because the generic emoji symbol for “guitar” in most major operating systems.
Fender’s move to implement a copyright around it, including against boutique guitar builders, ignited an online backlash amongst some guitar influencers.
Thomann in June filed a legal motion called a “declaration of non-infringement” against Fender, arguing that Fender didn’t have a sound copyright to the Strat body shape, partly since the Fender ruling in March got here in the shape of a default judgment against a smaller online seller that didn’t show up in Düsseldorf court to challenge Fender’s claims.
In its filing this week, Fender said it sells about 500,000 Strats per yr, with 34,000 of those sold in Germany. Fender cited Thomann’s own estimates that the retailer sells 10,000 Fender Strats per yr.
“Thomann isn’t a small independent guitar builder. It’s certainly one of the world’s largest musical instrument retailers, certainly one of Fender’s largest retail partners, and the owner of Harley Benton, certainly one of Europe’s largest guitar brands,” Fender said in an announcement.