In the Armadillo (Dean) case outcome last month (as reported in the news). a Texas jury apparently found that Dean violated Gibson's body shape trademarks on 3 guitars, as well as the headstock shape on a 4th and the name on a 5th. It is not clear from the reporting whether they determined that Dean counterfeited Gibson guitars. But the shapes and name are not generic and are protected as trademarks. However...... The jury awarded zero ($0.00) actual damages to Gibson, on the basis that Gibson's delay in asserting it's trademark rights was "inexcusable" and caused undue prejudice to Armadillo. The statutory award for winning the case was $4,000.00. That will all likely be some kind of precedent in other cases.
Both sides claimed this as a victory. The Gibson spokesman is quoted as saying, “Gibson can now focus attention on continuing to leverage its iconic past, and invest in future innovation, with confidence.”
IMO, "leveraging it's iconic past" explains where they are going.
Heritage's private antitrust claim may likely not be a winning proposition. However, they have the financial resources to play ball with Gibson for the full nine innings, and that does make a difference.
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