OldBenKenobi
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2010
- Messages
- 8,146
- Reaction score
- 10,510
But it's not really any different than the car shapes you describe. In 60+ years it's shaken out that there are really only a handful of basic body shapes that are practical to build and play and have remained popular, with different companies riffing on them. A Flying V is a popular, iconic, stock design. There are a lot of Flying V variations out there. Why should the Gibson variation in particular be trademarked (or for that matter the Jackson variant)?I dunno. For example, most mid-engine cars, Ferrari, Lambo, Audi, and the new C8 Vette all follow a similar body style. Only so much you can do with a mid-engine and aerodynamics. One could say form and function work closely here.
On the other hand, guitar bodies relative to performance are completely independent of shape one could claim. May not actually be the case, but the claim could be made. So the difference in appearance and performance with the mid-engine car (not really any options) versus the 6 string electric is totally different.
This is why Gibson and Fender want to have the body shapes they designed trademarked, as is the Mercedes star.
In this particular case, the Firebird is a blatant ripoff of the Fender Jazzmaster designed to cash-in on the offset trend. The Jazzmaster isn't trademarked, why should the Firebird be?
It is different with headstocks, since they do act as a de facto logo for the manufacturer and there is far less of a functional aspect to their design.