eBay and Gumtree links to Rickenbacker basses

[ShergoldSnickers]

Due to the time-consuming and near impossibility of determining whether an advertised Rickenbacker is genuine or not, and that we could be seen to be potentially facilitating the sale of a fake Rickenbacker, we would really appreciate your co-operation in not posting any links advertising Rickenbacker or openly fake Rickenbacker basses. Whilst a proportion will undoubtedly be genuine, it only takes one link to a fake one to be spotted by Rickenbacker themselves, and we are open to the accusation of facilitating a sale.

We would love to not be in this situation, but in the real world we sometimes have to make what may seem at first to be unnecessarily sweeping decisions. The legal consequences do not justify the risks in this case alas.

Thanks,
the Mod team.

[Jebo1]

What a horrid situation to be in. And a particularly odd one, too. Good luck!

[prowla]

I think it is quite easy to spot a fake Ric bass.

Way easier than Fenders...

[Bassassin]

It is stupidly easy when you know what to look for - but this discussion's been had before and makes no difference to the BC position on these things. This came about as a result of John Hall making legal threats against BC over For Sale listings of Fakers and the Faker/Rick ban here is (as I understand it) as much a middle-finger to the man's unprofessional & asinine behaviour as it is a safeguard of BC's interests.

I find it interesting that he leaves the FB groups alone.

[Happy Jack]

Perhaps he's had the misfortune to meet Mark Zuckerberg.

[prowla]

9 hours ago, Bassassin said:

It is stupidly easy when you know what to look for - but this discussion's been had before and makes no difference to the BC position on these things. This came about as a result of John Hall making legal threats against BC over For Sale listings of Fakers and the Faker/Rick ban here is (as I understand it) as much a middle-finger to the man's unprofessional & asinine behaviour as it is a safeguard of BC's interests.

I find it interesting that he leaves the FB groups alone.

I admire the fact that he protects his brand, which he has to do or he'll tacitly accept them and thus lose the right to the intellectual property.

Contast that with all of the "Fender"s and "Gibson"s you see about with fake logos.

I quite like the vintage Japanese, etc. Ric copies, which have their own point in time and indeed I've had a couple of Matsumoku ones and currently have a Shaftesbury; I nearly paid good money recently for a John Birch a short while ago.

However, I dislike the more recent Ric copies, including the Rockinbetters and Chickenbackers (with fake logos on their TRC).

That said, I accept BC's position that they are better just keeping away from the whole thing.

[Bassassin]

Bit of a can of worms, tbh. I appreciate that US trademark law means that a trademark holder has to challenge every infringement or they risk losing their right to exclusivity - but I don't think that can be applied retrospectively to very old MIJ copies. I think Hall's big problem with these is that rather awkward little detail that they existed before JH's Rickenbacker International Corp did (I think he set that up in the late 80s) and they existed a very long time before he registered any of his trademarks.

Some smartarse has previously pointed out (OK, it was me) that a Japanese company that sold Rickenbacker copies in the 70s  - such as Ibanez, perhaps - could demonstrate that they made basses which featured all of JH's registered trade dress designs as far back as 1971. That might imply that Mr Hall didn't actually have any right to exclusive use of trademarks he first registered in about 2000. Probably just as well that Ibanez have better things to do.

[prowla]

It's a bit like the brand of Rugby where if you're tackled you have to do a Mexican worm on the floor to show that you're trying to get up; if you don't, you'll get a penalty against you.