Bass-Playing Lawyer Defeats Guitar Giant ; Hackensack Firm Prevails Against Fender's Claim to Design Rights

Summary

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Ron Bienstock is a lawyer and a rock musician who combined those two parts of his life to gain what is perhaps the biggest legal victory of his career.

The 50-something attorney from Fair Lawn, who fills his nights and weekends with the passions of a 20-something musician, took on one of the music industry's biggest players and won, persuading the U.S. Trademark and Appeal Board to deny a bid by Fender Musical Instruments Corp., or FMIC, to monopolize guitar designs.

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Extract

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Bass-Playing Lawyer Defeats Guitar Giant ; Hackensack Firm Prevails Against Fender's Claim to Design Rights

The hotly contested case stretched on for six years, but in the end, the trademark board ruled that the body shapes that Fender attempted to register as trademarks were generic, and open to use by all guitar and b...

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