Guitar.com reports
The guitar industry would be crippled if Gibson were to win its legal cases against the companies it alleges are “counterfeiting” its instruments, believes trademark and copyright expert Ron Bienstock.
The lawyer, who is representing several guitar brands in the suits Gibson has filed against them, gave an interview to business news portal ROI-NJ in which he questioned the legal basis of Gibson’s cases against the likes of Armadillo, ESP and Schecter. Here are five talking points from the article:
While the Nashville company’s case against Armadillo is still being contested, Gibson recently lost a related case in Europe over the Flying V shape. That ruling, said Bienstock, suggests that US courts will arrive at a similar conclusion.
Otherwise, both the guitar industry and guitar players would suffer, he argues. A legal victory for Gibson would “shut down a large portion of the industry manufacturing similar styles and successfully monopolise the market share”, the lawyer told ROI-NJ.
