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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 5238831" data-attributes="member: 19675">Its all about protecting your brand.Originally, asprin, xerox, kleenex and other words were actually particular brands- a couple still are- and the world in general started using them as generic words for the underlying product.And by virtue of non-enforcement, they became generic terms for those products.As for this particular product, the answer is: don't make your product look like someone else's design.Again, this is what happened with the "Gibson Lawsuit guitars."  The makers were not prevented from making guitars, they were just prevented from making their guitars look too much like certain iconic and highly valuable Gibson guitars.  The same kind of thing happened with Fender and other major guitar makers, with varying degrees of success.  The courts have basically said that there are certain features that you cannot help but have when making a guitar of a particular type- the form follows the function- but if the design is too close, you'll get dinged.And its a VERY fine line.  You look at a Fender Stratocaster next to a G&L Tribute Legacy, Fernandes Retrorocket, an Agile Traveler (and many others besides) and you'll see that the differences can be very subtle.</blockquote>