# Ruh-roh. Martin headstock shape trademark announced.



## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

There's going to be a lot of "lawsuit" models around all of a sudden:

Martin Guitar > News > Articles


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

It's a fricken paddle that doesn't _have_ a shape. I can't imagine any big name maker wanting to use it anyways, not distinctive to give them brand recognition. Now, admittedly, I'm not up on the latest and greatest in the acoustic guitar world these days, but is anyone legit making something like it?


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

I have to agree. Its a pretty utilitarian shape to try and enforce a trademark. As a fan of utilitarian design i think you would be opening a can of worms if the courts ever upheld such a trademark.


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## Ship of fools (Nov 17, 2007)

I am wondering if this has more to do with the Chinese made Martin guitars, because I think if push really came to shove there were other makers out there in the early 1850's and below that had very similar headstocks and it would be hard pressed to say that they created the shape before anybody else did.ship


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

godin will have to make some changes to their line up... A&L as well as S&P have similar headstocks.


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## washburned (Oct 13, 2006)

blam said:


> godin will have to make some changes to their line up... A&L as well as S&P have similar headstocks.


Similar is ok....the same, not ok.


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## keeperofthegood (Apr 30, 2008)

> "The clean, simple, iconic shape of the Martin guitar headstock has long been recognized by consumers as one of the primary identifying brand and design elements of our guitars,"



Yes, it distinctivly looks like a neck blank thats been left as a blank.


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## stringer (Jun 17, 2009)

Wow, what an uninspiring headstock. It's so generic, so bland, so..... utterly forgettable.


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## joey_capps (Dec 23, 2008)

I think it is sleek and elegant--thoroughly modern. I wish them luck.


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## Traivs (Aug 13, 2010)

I'm a fan of the Martin shape; I like the simplicity. Instantly recognizable.


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## keeperofthegood (Apr 30, 2008)

Still looks like an unfinished neck blank to me :/


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## cracka (Apr 28, 2011)

But still a shape they've been using since when... Might be a little much to trademark it, I just wonder how far they'll go with it. Like how different other manufacturers have to make theirs?


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## washburned (Oct 13, 2006)

Could be a protection thing. If someone else was to copyright it then Martin would have to pay them.


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## keeperofthegood (Apr 30, 2008)

Personally I think it was expedience. A company that suddenly got popular needing workers. Room full of farmer kids who knew how to make a hoe for the fields won't make great woodworkers off the bat. Much more reasonable to suspect that the design was designed for the expedience of rapid production by unskilled labour than for any form of artistic merit and a graduated system of bringing in apprentices and getting them to learn the trade from the headstock down one section at a time. Considering the claim is that this was done some 10 or 15 years after the company went into producing guitars it was not a founding view or inspiration of the company. Easy way to tell would be to examine the sales history through that period and observe the increase in sales matching the decrease in complexity of the finished item but then the family would have to have kept that information from the mid 1800's.

But then we are talking also about the mid 1800's. How defensible is something after such a time period? Worse for the company would be anyone able to show the same headstock in use prior to when they claim they brought it into use... and I don't think you would be too hard pressed to find such examples and not just because luthiers of the day knew each other, and traded information, secrets, ideas and techniques ... which is why the "innovation" of X bracing is not supported as a Martin creation (and oddly this neat easy to make and production speed increaser element also came at the same time period they are claiming for the headstock style).


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