Fender sues German retailer Thomann in copyright dispute over Stratocaster

By Stephen Nellis

SAN FRANCISCO, July 16 (Reuters) - Fender, which makes the "Stratocaster" electric guitar made famous by musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, has filed legal action in a German court against instrument retailer Thomann, alleging copyright infringement.

The filing in a regional German court in Düsseldorf this week comes after Fender in March won copyright protection in Europe for the Strat, as the guitar model is called by musicians. 

Fender argues that the Harley Benton-brand guitars developed and sold by Thomann, one of its largest global retail partners, copy the classic Strat shape.

In May, Fender sent cease and desist letters to a range of companies, including Yamaha, the world's largest instrument maker, asking them to stop manufacturing and selling Strat lookalikes headed for Europe.

Thomann did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Strat-shaped instruments have been sold by manufacturers large and small at various price points for decades, with the shape becoming so ubiquitous that it serves as the generic emoji symbol for "guitar" in most major operating systems. 

Fender's move to enforce a copyright around it, including against boutique guitar builders, ignited an online backlash among some guitar influencers. 

Thomann in June filed a legal action called a "declaration of non-infringement" against Fender, arguing that Fender did not have a valid copyright to the Strat body shape, in part because the Fender ruling in March came in the form of a default judgment against a smaller online seller that did not show up in Düsseldorf court to challenge Fender's claims.

In its filing this week, Fender said it sells about 500,000 Strats per year, with 34,000 of those sold in Germany. Fender cited Thomann's own estimates that the retailer sells 10,000 Fender Strats per year.

"Thomann isn't a small independent guitar builder. It is one of the world's largest musical instrument retailers, one of Fender's largest retail partners, and the owner of Harley Benton, one of Europe's largest guitar brands," Fender said in a statement.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis, Nathan Gomes and Nandan Mandayam; Editing by Sharon Singleton)