> The Fender copyright claim will fail for one simple reason

The designer of the instrument didn’t consider himself an artist.

The company had previously had a trademark claim and failed.

Basically, they waited too long to defend that property, and it has become ubiquitous.

But the real thing going on is this: Fender's demand of destroying existing stock gives copycat manufacturers hit hard with competition from Asian manufacturers an opportunity to write down all of that stock.

And the public gets to eat that cost by covering the loss via high tax rates.

Those yelling the loudest about it are those invested in the copycat market as distributors, marketers, warehousers, and importers.

The idea that consumers give a damn about all of that is a hoax.