A judge has thrown out Gibson's latest legal claim against its guitar manufacturing rival Dean Guitars after Gibson won a trademark infringement case against Dean earlier this year.
In July, Dean was ordered by the court to stop manufacturing its V Series, Z Series and Gransport Series electric guitars, as Yahoo! reported. The models were found to infringe on corresponding guitar shapes coined by Gibson — the Gibson Flying V, Gibson Explorer and Gibson SG, respectively.
That decision affirmed a previous ruling from May when a jury rejected a claim by Dean's parent company, Armadillo, that the Gibson designs were now generic and unprotectable. In 2019, Gibson filed suit against Dean alleging trademark infringement and counterfeiting, according to Guitar World.
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But last month, Gibson newly argued that Dean should be held in contempt of court for continuing to advertise its V and Z Series guitars after they were ordered to cease manufacture. Gibson claimed Dean still was still advertising the models on its website and on social media. (As of this posting, Dean's V Series and Z Series webpages are still available, but with no product present.)
Almost all the issues raised in Gibson's contempt motions have been resolved, the court stated. The decision was handed down by Judge Amos Mazzant III in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Oct. 31.
Back in 2019, Dean argued that it had continuously offer[ed] the V- and Z-shaped guitars at issue in the lawsuit since at least 1976, saying other guitar companies have for decades used the commonplace guitar shapes that Gibson now tries to claim exclusive rights to.
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After the July decision, Gibson said that it was once again very pleased with the outcome after years of simply trying to protect their brand and business through well recognized intellectual property rights, rights that have been Gibson's for decades.
It added, Gibson's guitar shapes are iconic and now are firmly protected for the past, present and future. … Gibson can now focus attention on continuing to leverage its iconic past and invest in future innovation.Gibson has filed a motion accusing Armadillo, parent company of Dean s, of contempt of court, accusing it of failing to act on their legal battle’s final judgement, and of “bragging” in a recent interview with
The main argument Gibson makes in its claim, which was filed on 8 August, relates to the continued existence of product listings of Dean’s V and Z s on its website. The wording of the final judgement is clear that Armadillo is now “permanently enjoined from the manufacture, advertisement, and/or sale of its […] Luna Athena 501 , […] DEAN Gran Sport ; […] s bearing, using, or advertising with the word ‘Hummingbird;’ […] DEAN V ; and […] DEAN Z .”
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However, as Gibson’s motion points out, visiting the Dean website today (12 August 2022), you can still see pages for multiple s in the Dean V and Dean Z range – two weeks after the final judgement. Gibson’s motion does point out that the Gran Sport model, accused of infringing on the SG body shape, disappeared from Dean’s website “almost immediately.”
With Armadillo’s then-CEO Evan Rubinson. In the interview, conducted shortly after the jury verdict was declared (27 May 2022) we asked Rubinson several questions about the verdict, and what Dean’s plans going forward were.
Rubinson responded: “We have no plans to drop the Dean V and Z s, nor the Dean Evo headstock design, as the jury found no trademark liability on any of those. That said, the case is by no means over – there will likely be a post-trial briefing, and Gibson may potentially appeal the verdict, despite their touted victory.”
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The jury verdict did in fact find that Armadillo had infringed on almost all alleged trademarks – including the Flying V and the Explorer body shapes with the Dean V and Dean Z. The only trademark Dean did not infringe on in some way was the “Flying V”
Has been submitted as evidence alongside Gibson’s filing. The motion accusing Armadillo of contempt of court singles out the above quote, saying that it was a “boast” from Rubinson. It also argues that as he was CEO of Armadillo at the time, the quote constitutes Armadillo “bragg[ing] that it would continue to market and sell at least the Dean V and Dean Z s.”
Gibson’s motion adds that: “While Gibson disagreed [with Rubinson’s interpretation] it assumed that the defiance would end with the Court’s Order.” This essentially means that Gibson did not consider Rubinson’s statement inherently contemptuous at first, but that it has become relevant to the case now that Dean hasn’t taken down its listings for its V and Z s.
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Gibson is hence requesting that “the court should fine Armadillo to secure compliance with the order.” The motion also states that “fines, incarceration, and an administrator appointment are appropriate in this case given Armadillo’s brazen defiance of the Court’s Order.”
Gibson also requests that the “reasonable costs and fees” incurred by the new filing are awarded to it by the court, as “A jury found infringement […] yet Gibson has had to continue to incur attorney fees to continue to monitor Armadillo’s unlawful activities, as well as the fees associated preparing and filing this Motion for Civil Contempt.”
And finally, Gibson00’s motion states that it reserves the right to “request compensatory sanctions beyond costs and fees” once it has had the time to establish what those might be.More than 18 months since the controversial lawsuit was made public, the trademark case between Gibson and Dean finally looks set to hit the courts this year.
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The decision to head to the courtroom was instigated after Gibson Brands and Armadillo Distribution Enterprises, the parent company of Dean, both requested for a summary judgement; a move which would have favoured one of the parties based on a judicial decision as opposed to a full trial.
According to Digital Music News, Armadillo Distribution Enterprises made two requests for summary judgement and were denied both of them. As such, Gibson Brands’ followed suit with their own summary judgement request in December 2020, which was swatted away by District Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant in Texas last week.
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‘After a careful review of the record and the arguments presented, the Court is not convinced that Gibson met its burden demonstrating that there is no material issue of fact as to these claims entitling it to judgment as a matter of law, ’ Judge Amos L. Mazzant stated in his finding, which you can read here. ‘Accordingly, the Court finds that the motion should be denied.’
As you might recall, the initial lawsuit was put forward by Gibson Brands in June 2019 after they accused Armadillo Distribution Enterprises of infringing on seven of its copyrighted designs, including Flying V, Explorer, SG and ES models, as well as the Dove Wing headstock, Moderene trademark and the name Hummingbird.
A statement from the initial lawsuit claimed that by using similar designs, Dean were misleading consumers to believe that their guitars were official Gibson models. As such, the iconic US brand is seeking triple damages for trademark infringement and up to US $2m for each instance of counterfeiting.
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News of the lawsuit landed in what was a relatively ugly period in the limelight for Gibson Brands. The company, which had filed for bankruptcy only a year prior to the lawsuit, had launched a webpage asking for consumers to snitch on other brands who were impeding on their trademarks with ‘counterfeit’ models.
This move was matched with the release of a bizarre (and now-deleted) video asking consumers to ‘play authentic’, which simultaneously acted as a backhanded threat to competing brands to ‘watch out’ as they sought to ‘protect their legacy’.
In response, Armadillo Distribution Enterprises hit Gibson with a countersuit to have their trademarks cancelled, alleging that Gibson had contacted a number of dealers in the US to demand they stop stocking Dean guitars and threatening legal action.
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‘Many other companies have been using these generic shapes for decades, ’ Armadillo Distribution Enterprises CEO Evan Rubinson argued while filling the countersuit in 2019.
However, an attempt from Armadillo Distribution Enterprises to have Gibson’s accusation of counterfeiting removed from their complaint was denied in June 2020, with Judge Amos L. Mazzant saying ‘After reviewing the current complaint, The Court finds that Gibson has stated plausible claims for purposes of defeating a [motion to] dismiss.’
At this stage, it’s tough to tell. It’s undeniable that Gibson certainly have a case to argue here, as implied by Mazzant’s dismissal of Armadillo’s attempt to remove accusations of counterfeiting from their case last year.
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That being said, if Gibson are successful, it could set a dangerous precedent for other brands who’ve crafted instruments that look similar to their trademarked designs – which, in the guitar world, is basically everyone.
Currently, a trial date for Gibson vs. Dean is set for April 2021 – we’ll aim to keep you updated with all that happens along the way.Gibson retains its US trademarks for the
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