Fender, the famous guitar maker, has recently won a case in Germany that its Stratocaster style of body is a work of art that can be copyrighted. The ruling was against an Alibaba retailer selling extremely cheap S-style guitars. Since winning, Fender has gone around sending cease and desist letters to many guitar-makers that make “S-Style” guitars.
Most guitar nuts are fans of the big guitar makers (Gibson, Fender, etc.) and a variety of boutique makers: Novo Guitars, PRS, G&L, and Suhr, along with many mom-and-pop luthiers. The letters going out ask for quite a lot in damages, and demand that the makers recall the guitars they’ve sold and destroy them.
Typically, American law has taken the view that the body shapes of U.S. guitars are in the public domain now.
The guitar “community” is rebelling against this, and lumping it together with recent complaints about low quality control on Fender guitars to trash the company for seeking to make a monopoly of a design that scores of makers use, even as it lowers the quality of guitars that goes out to customers. This is bad for everyone. Bad for makers, and probably bad for Fender, as it will inspire boycotts.