Gibson loses Flying V trademark case in EU court
Gibson Flying V body shape trademark case lost in EU
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Gibson has just lost their Flying V trademark case in EU court. The court has stated that the Flying V body shape has “no demonstration of distinctive character”.
Flying V trademark case blow
Dean Guitars’ legal team will surely be watching this outcome and using it in their defence against Gibson, over the alleged copyright infringement case that they are now embroiled in with Gibson.
Originally Gibson had filed for a trademark claim for the guitar back in 16 June 2010, when Gibson filed a patent application for the Flying V shape with the European Union Intellectual Property Office. Then on October 2014 Hans-Peter Wilfer, the owner of Warwick and Framus went ahead and challenged the registration.
The Second Chamber of the EU General Court then stated “there has been no demonstration of distinctive character acquired,” by the Flying V and “that when the application for registration of the challenged mark was filed, the V-shape did not depart significantly from the norms and customs of the sector.”
Gibson Flying V · Source: Heritage Auctions/Gibson
In 2016, this case was heard by the EUIPO’s Cancellation Division, and Wilfer’s complaint was upheld. Gibson appealed, but then lost in 2018. So decided to appeal to the EU General Court and it has been dismissed again by a panel of three judges.
They stated that the Flying V guitar “was very original when it was released on the market in 1958, it cannot however deny the evolution of the market during the following 50 years, which was henceforward characterised by a wide variety of available shapes.”
“The presence on the market of a significant number of shapes encountered by consumers makes it unlikely that they will regard a particular shape as belonging to a specific manufacturer rather than being just one of the variety of shapes characterising the market.”
Too long
Essentially, to wrap this whole debacle up in one sentence for you, Gibson waited too long to file for the Flying V shape as a trademark.
They do still hold patents for other aspects of the Flying V and also the Flying V body shape in other non guitar areas like clothing or jewellery.
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2 responses to “Gibson loses Flying V trademark case in EU court”
I have a feeling we are going to see something similar in the Eastern District of Texas in a few months, at least in regards to the body shapes of the Flying V, Explorer, SG and ES shapes.
There you go Gibson, a big dose of “Fuck You”. Now you’ll have to go back to selling your overpriced tat to people who have many better options. Glad I don’t own shares in Gibson. Dead in the water within five years.