| Guys,
Keep it simple ( as most of the things in this bloody world ).
I am a Lawyer ( not a trademark one ) and could give
a few guides - Larry explained the things better than a
Lawyer, but I would give a simpler one. The first thing
I have to say is that no right is protected unless is registered.
This goes for patents, composition, books or whatever.
Second you can not use any person's name or image without
consent. I think that it is more suitable a legal action based on the
second premise than the first one.
With respect to trumpets and mouthpieces the issue is tricky.
I think that it is near impossible to patent a trumpet because
any single trumpet is more or less a copy of a design from the
18 th century. I think that same could be said about mpc. I know
that there are some mpc. patents around but you have to
demonstrate the U.S. Patent Office that your invention is unique
and a bunch of things rather difficult in an object used since the
Roman Empire as the mouthpiece.
Even though I think that the Marcinkiewitz, Monettes and GR are good products I don't think really that they really "invented" anything, so the
protection of a patent would not be available to this products. Anyway
there is protection to their names. In Europe probably they would
receive an additional protection due to consumer acts that ban any
product that would mislead the consumer about the identity or
quality of the product.
There are a lot of questions on this issue but I would like to keep
it simple.
Gus |