That Gibson video

Very recently, Gibson had this video out featuring Mark Agnesi telling guitar copiers to beware of their backlash should they insist on making their guitars look like Gibsons. That video had been swiftly taken down. People are saying Gibson did that one in poor taste. Instead of getting ahead in terms of quality, they threatened competitors with lawsuits to keep things in check. They are deemed insecure & going about things with the wrong set of priorities. 

There is no wrong in upholding one's intellectual property (IP) but one's approach in handling it is a different thing altogether. I happened to watch that video before it disappeared & thought it was aimed squarely at a certain group of manufacturers & not a grand declaration of war in general. Reading into the finer points, Gibson is telling the world that it's back with a vengeance. The current CEO had it right thus far & they need to put a stop to others' practices that might have been ignored previously. Fair enough but be mindful of how you present that to the rest of the world. 

Let's say a product infringement occurs in the USA, can Gibson take immediate action? They can have an immediate removal orders but legal action against the responsible entity is not an easy affair. The party guilty of IP infringement need to exist in the same jurisdiction to begin with & that's through registration. Remember the PRS - Gibson debacle pertaining to the singlecut design? That's an easy one for Gibson because PRS is a registered entity in the USA. Try pulling this off against a Far Eastern copy & you would be hard pressed to even know whose ass to drag to court to begin with. 

On that note, I will not stop buying products like the Edwards here (E-LP-125) which is a blatant copy of a Gibson- there's no hiding that. Be mindful that Edwards did not intend their guitar to be a Gibson to begin with, it's their interpretation of the Les Paul reverence. They explicitly labelled the headstock as their own & not a Gibson. These guitars are also not meant to be on sale in the international market, the Japanese are content with proving their worth at home, they are not interested in strutting their stuff to the rest of the world. 

I'm not against Gibson & what it stands for seeing that everything is falling well into place for the company. In fact, I'm happy to see this happen because the Gibson name is a force to be reckoned with. The recent slump in reputation is an unfortunate downturn but it's been addressed & things are starting to be on the rise once again for this iconic brand name. What they can expect from me is total support. But be reminded that our support would sway if Gibson loses focus once more & chose to indulge in a commercial circus once more.

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