Check out the color changes from the prototype last year to the final version this year.
Thatās trade dress. Whatās interesting is that Behringer are copying the trade dress of products that havenāt been manufactured for at least 30 years. IMO would be hard for Roland to demonstrate to a court any economic ālossā from this copying given that they havenāt made synths or drum machines that look like this for literally decades.
Maybe Behringer changed the colours of the 808 clone not because it looks like the old 808, but because those colours are currently being used by Roland on the TR8 and TR8S (I.e. current products, where loss is easier to demonstrate).
It will be interesting to see how it all pans out for sure. I guess had Behringer not copied the colour scheme and look they would have less appeal to consumers so that might go in Rolands favour.
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I added the photo of the Roland as well. The original prototype was much closer. They flipped the color scheme in several spots. Iām pretty sure if they are investing that much they are having everything cleared by their IP attorneys.
The clone wars!
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I think Rolands appointment of a specialist trade mark protection company MarkMonitor could mean that they see it differently, Iād think that such services donāt come cheap and given their history with Behringer Iād suspect they believe they have a strong case.
Not sure if flipping a few buttons and knobs around would be seen as enough distinction especially since there are videos and images showing the earlier prototype.
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Yeah, Iām not a lawyer, so weāll see. With guitars you can pretty much copy a telecaster as long as the headstock is a slightly different shape. Itās very subtle difference.
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Good point re Telecaster, and I suppose the same can be said of lots of other products too.
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Good point. That principle applies on other industries as well. Cars, shoes, phones, laptops. Imagine how little choice we would have if Apple successfully managed to copyright rectangular boxes with rounded corners. Or Nike with a copyright on basic sneaker designs.
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This is an interesting read. It seems that you have register specific elements that you want to trademark (and further notes how Fender was unable to get the body shapes of their guitars registered because they acted too late).
Yeah it seems to be something that isnāt easily decided or even very clearly universal as to what aspects are subject to protection, think back to when Roland went after Propellerhead for the Rebirth app, I wonder if that was to do with trade dress or sounds or a combination of things, that software had been out for years, weird huh?
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Stealing code is apparently easier to win.
This is a recent case of just that:
thats some high level of creativity right there
Because there copyright does apply.
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I get the sense some Behringer supporters on this forum would be pissed if Behringer blantantly cloned the Analog 4 or Rytm.
But if itās Roland. Who caresā¦
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The following is just conjecture of courseā¦
I do think that Roland doesnāt care much about other manufacturers creating fully analogue clones of their old gear. If they were convinced there was a large enough market to make such a thing worthwhile, they surely would have done so themselves.
Roland clearly thinks it makes more sense to properly model their old stuff, and then build modern digital products using those models.
They do however feel a need to protect their heritage in terms of branding and how things look and feel. It will be interesting to see how far they plan to go with this, and what will happen if they do take steps to protect these things.
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Or imagine (and it isnāt too much of a stretch) if Behringer started cloning Mutable instruments stuff and other small manufacturers too, companies that would not have the finances or resources to resist.
Still I bet some people wouldnāt have a problem with that either, as long as they can have cheaper gear, yet if they lost their income because of aggressive undercutting in the industry they are in, you can bet theyād have a problem with that. To some people cost and price are the same thing until they are directly affected, then suddenly they seem to learn the difference, the hard way.
Getting a bit off topic now though.
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Would be perfectly legal as long as they do not violate any of MIās trademarks.
A4 and AR sure cuz we have the MK2 recently. But if they cloned a MM or MD id get one since Elektron would rather give us M:S instead.
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