Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

[kickaxeguitars]

http://www.petitiononline.com/Dimarzio/petition.html

Very interesting.. How much you want to be either Duncna, Gibson or Fender is behind this? [img]graemlins/bs.gif[/img]

[kickaxeguitars]

Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

http://www.petitiononline.com/Dimarzio/petition.html

Very interesting.. How much you want to be either Duncna, Gibson or Fender is behind this? [img]graemlins/bs.gif[/img]

[toejam]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

Duncan still makes double creme pups in their shop, you just have to order them with covers and can take them off. Carvin makes double creme pups, but I think they get away with it because they've got 11 pole pieces per coil instead of 6. I love DiMarzio but really never understood how or why they had a patent on a color.

[toejam]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

Duncan still makes double creme pups in their shop, you just have to order them with covers and can take them off. Carvin makes double creme pups, but I think they get away with it because they've got 11 pole pieces per coil instead of 6. I love DiMarzio but really never understood how or why they had a patent on a color.

[Newc]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

Because Gibson was cracking their balls in court about making humbuckers, which once Gibson saw there was a market for vintage replicas, they wanted to hog the ball. Then Gibson noticed the rarest pickup bobbins (the double-creme) were really gaining interest, and started making them to compete with DiMarzio, but DiMarzio got Gibson back by trademarking the double-creme color scheme. Gibson was trying to put DiMarzio out of business, but were not willing to offer the wide range of pickups DiMarzio offered (true PAFs, different windings, etc) - Gibson was basically saying "You want a Gibson pickup, you get whatever we put out or you don't get sh!t".

Well, when other companies like Duncan and MightyMite started making pickups, DiMarzio still had to protect their market share, since people still wanted double-creme bobbins.

Gibson had always covered their pickups, and the creme color is actually a manufacturing fluke - the factory that made the bobbins for Gibson ran out of the element that turns them black, so on occasion they would end up with black and creme, or double creme. Since Gibson wanted them covered anyway, they didn't care. Word got out that you could remove the covers for a different sound and then people found the color differences. This eventually escalated to "vibe" and people sought out creme bobbins because of some mythical tonal differences between the black pickups and creme pickups.
Add to this the aforementioned fact that people wanted a new pickup that sounded like the original PAF Gibson pickup, but Gibson wasn't making them, and they wanted them in black and creme, or double-creme, so DiMarzio was filling that desire in the market. I don't blame them one bit for fighting to keep it their trademark.

Newc

[Newc]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

Because Gibson was cracking their balls in court about making humbuckers, which once Gibson saw there was a market for vintage replicas, they wanted to hog the ball. Then Gibson noticed the rarest pickup bobbins (the double-creme) were really gaining interest, and started making them to compete with DiMarzio, but DiMarzio got Gibson back by trademarking the double-creme color scheme. Gibson was trying to put DiMarzio out of business, but were not willing to offer the wide range of pickups DiMarzio offered (true PAFs, different windings, etc) - Gibson was basically saying "You want a Gibson pickup, you get whatever we put out or you don't get sh!t".

Well, when other companies like Duncan and MightyMite started making pickups, DiMarzio still had to protect their market share, since people still wanted double-creme bobbins.

Gibson had always covered their pickups, and the creme color is actually a manufacturing fluke - the factory that made the bobbins for Gibson ran out of the element that turns them black, so on occasion they would end up with black and creme, or double creme. Since Gibson wanted them covered anyway, they didn't care. Word got out that you could remove the covers for a different sound and then people found the color differences. This eventually escalated to "vibe" and people sought out creme bobbins because of some mythical tonal differences between the black pickups and creme pickups.
Add to this the aforementioned fact that people wanted a new pickup that sounded like the original PAF Gibson pickup, but Gibson wasn't making them, and they wanted them in black and creme, or double-creme, so DiMarzio was filling that desire in the market. I don't blame them one bit for fighting to keep it their trademark.

Newc

[Hotrod]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

Sure, I don't blame them either, but I just don't understand how they can patent or copywrite a color. Why can't someone else do that with black or the Zebra? If they did it once, why not again? [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

[Hotrod]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

Sure, I don't blame them either, but I just don't understand how they can patent or copywrite a color. Why can't someone else do that with black or the Zebra? If they did it once, why not again? [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

There's a big difference between a patent, a copyright, and a trademark.
The color combo is what's trademarked, not the color itself.

Newc

[Newc]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

There's a big difference between a patent, a copyright, and a trademark.
The color combo is what's trademarked, not the color itself.

Newc

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

Smart business move on DiMarzio's part. I won't petion it as I like DiMarzio p/u's [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

Smart business move on DiMarzio's part. I won't petion it as I like DiMarzio p/u's [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[abalonevintage]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

DiMarzio's competition at the time (75-80) was Mighty Mite......Not Gibson.

Larry hated Mighty Mite and thought they were ripping off their vibe.

-eric

[abalonevintage]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

DiMarzio's competition at the time (75-80) was Mighty Mite......Not Gibson.

Larry hated Mighty Mite and thought they were ripping off their vibe.

-eric

[Hotrod]

Re: Dimarzio patent on creme Pups petition

There's a big difference between a patent, a copyright, and a trademark.
The color combo is what's trademarked, not the color itself.

Newc

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">So why can't someone trademark double black or Zebra? What's to stop them?