Essa é uma boa solução... Até eles exigirem as mudanças de headstock e desenho...rs
Pelo menos, até onde eu sei, o headstock da gibson não é patenteado!
Tem um tipo especial de registro, que nos USA chamam de "United States Design Patent", os números de registro começam com "US
D..", só pra design.
Por exemplo, o Sr. Edward Van Halen e a Peavey patentearam o seguinte headstock:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/USD388117.pdfNão sei se a Gibson registrou o headstock "livro aberto" dela, mas diria que é quase certo (quem tiver paciência pode procurar no Google).
Achei a patente do headstock da Firebird.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/USD246331.pdfAs guitarras Tokai (japonesas) da década de 70 não foram processadas pela Fender e pela Gibson justamente por causa do desenho de headstock? As famosas "lawsuit Tokais".
Uma leitura interessante:
http://davidsontm.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/three-chords-and-a-lawsuit-a-brief-history-of-guitars-and-trademarks/Gibson jealously protects the “open book” shape at the top of its headstocks, as well as the particular shape of the cutaways on its legendary LES PAUL and SG models. (Cutaways are the body indents on one or both sides of the neck, which allow a player easier access to the highest frets when soloing.)
Fender protects headstock shapes, and especially those of the iconic STRATOCASTER and TELECASTER models. The company recently attempted to reverse the course of history and seek registration protection for its STRAT and TELE body designs. Fender failed in that attempt when a large number of other guitar makers opposed the applications. The gist of the other makers’ argument was that Fender had allowed decades of widespread copying of those body designs, and as a result the configurations did not distinguish Fender’s guitars from any of the countless copies. See the allegations in one of the oppositions here.
Paul Reed Smith chooses to protect its headstock, its signature “birds in flight” fretboard inlays, and the beveled edge of its cutaway (see more below.)
Rickenbacker, whose legendary guitars were widely used by the Beatles and the Byrds, is one of the few guitar makers that has protected both body shapes and headstock shapes for decades. Rickenbacker also traditionally has been far more energetic in pursuing copyists than its peers, with the result that there are very few Rickenbacker copies to be found.