ESP taking the p*ss

[Sephiroth]

Re: ESP taking the p*ss

I don't care about the law.

ESP = over-priced poser. They copy everyone, but Jackson in particular. They snatch up Jackson artists and copy Jackson guitars on such a consistent basis that my only conclusion is that they want to be Jackson. Early one they even copied th Jackson head, but when that didn't pan out, they copied the reverse-wedge head used by Washburn at the time. They're copying Jackson, regardless of ambiguous terms laid out in the laws.

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: ESP taking the p*ss

Originally posted by pro-fusion:
Trademark rights, in particular, can be something of a 'moving target', since a lot depends on the perceived uniqueness of the item, and how widely is associated with your company by the intended audience.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It's the preceived uniqueness of the mark itself rather than the uniqueness of the item that matters but the rest is accurate WRT common law marks. Fortunately even small obscure companies can secure presumptive statewide/nationwide rights in their chosen mark by obtaining a state/federal registration(s) (thereby rendering the necessity of widespread public association of the mark with the company moot).

While it's possible to completely lose one's trademark that typically happens when the mark becomes generic (i.e., when the overwhelming majority of the public use the mark to refer to the product rather than using the actual generic name for the product). That rarely happens, a couple of examples would be the trademark Aspirin which commonly refers to tablets of acetylsalicylic acid not just those made by A.G. Bayer, and the trademark Escalator which has come to be a generic identifier of the obvious device no matter the source of the device. There are others that have become so generic as to have lost all meaning, but not many.

More often you'll just lose your right to bring a cause of action against a particular infringer or group of infringers. But that's not really much different than losing a claim to a statute of limitations or via the application of laches. The bottom line is that all IP really needs to be policed unless it's outlived its usefulness & is to be abandoned.

But enough boring you all, back to the topic at hand: ESP sucks ass! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[neilli]

Re: ESP taking the p*ss

Newc - I bow to your knowledge!
I (obviously)thought that Rickenbacker were really the first company to do neck-thru.... learning something new is what makes this forum so useful (especially if we can ignore some of the BS and Ibanez / ESP baiting!)
Cheers
Ian