In this video from El Dorado Guitars, host Mike argues that Fender's recent German court win (a default judgment against a Chinese seller) and subsequent cease-and-desist letters to American boutique guitar builders are not the main story. Instead, they're a deliberate strategy to create a strong record of "policing" the Stratocaster body shape. This builds evidence for a potential U.S. rematch of the 2009 case Fender lost, where the shape was ruled generic due to lack of enforcement. The video connects the dots on copyright vs. trademark angles and warns that this could reshape the guitar industry for builders, buyers, and players of S-style instruments.
