NEWS ANALYSIS Unappealing processes
Once again the British are peering across the pond to see what our MI cousins are up to. And again, it looks as though those litigious little fellas are drumming up entertainment just for us. Andy Barrett reports.…
Hartley Peavey (left) and Uli Behringer (right) have once again set their lawyers to work, eliciting much rolling of eyes from the trade on this side of the Atlantic
topic that has attracted the most comment on the MI Pro website. Behringer filed suit against Peavey on December 23rd last year, claiming that the latter failed to comply with US health and safety regulations, saying that certain Peavey products are incorrectly labelled and that they do not meet with Federal Communications Commission standards regarding radiation in digital equipment. Well, that sounds pretty bad. On April 30th, almost inevitably, Peavey filed a counter suit – or more accurately, multiple counter suits – alleging patent infringement. All this on top of those filed by Peavey in 2009 against Behringer for trademark infringement, false designation of origin, trademark dilution and unfair competition relating to, among other things, Peavey’s feedback locating system. That sounds pretty bad, too. As one of the comments on the MI Pro
T “ 8 miPRO JUNE 2011
he big news this month is the ongoing battle between Peavey and Behringer – and it is certainly the
website put it – posted by another amp maker, as it turned out – this is good news for the lawyers alone and all we can do is carry on with our lives until the rulings are made.
This is good news for the lawyers alone.
What is interesting to consider, however, is how UK retailers reacted to the news. Behringer turning to litigation usually elicits a sort of derisory snort from your average member of the UK MI trade.
Aside from the Peavey suits there have
been a number of others, most famously Mackie successfully suing the German company for copying its mic preamps. And then there are the cases that never
actually got to court – Roland successfully forcing Behringer to alter the design of its compact effects pedals because of their uncanny resemblance to Boss compacts. Other cases have come and gone without fanfare or announcement. I can think of at least one other Behringer product that hit the market and seemed to bear a likeness to another famous branded product, before silently vanishing.
Then there is the manner in which
Behringer chops and changes its distribution network. Of course, any manufacturer has the right to make sure its products are being sold into the market in the best, most profitable way, but signing up a reputable force such as Korg UK and then dropping it a few months later, with Korg barely having the staff and warehousing in place, smacked of opportunism to some. There are other facets to Behringer that
much of the world, even the trade, do not see. Nothing untoward, of course, nothing illegal, certainly, but odd things, like the high turnover of marketing managers and PR agents – about every six months by my reckoning. Peavey, on the other
hand, while almost certainly having problems and issues, just like any company, has maintained a strong relationship with its frontline allies. Over the past 45 years, it has consistently put out kit that, while not always what one could describe as ‘high-end’, has been the sort of gear that
“
has brought players on and made making and performing music a far more accessible activity. Simply put, Peavey has spent the past
45 years making friends and you tend to stick by your friends, don’t you? Behringer, of course, has done a lot of
good in terms of bringing people on as well. It has established itself as the entry- level king and opened up the doors to studio and live sound to an even greater degree than Peavey, some might argue. ‘Bloody hell, that’s cheap!’ is a perfectly valid marketing tack and Behringer (admittedly, with a tad more subtlety) has worked this well.
Friends are made in the field, not in the courts.
Look at it from another angle. Let’s say Behringer is vindicated in every single one of its claims against Peavey and the Mississippi manufacturer has to spend a year and
millions of dollars putting things right. Would that change your opinion of either company? I would hazard a guess that it wouldn’t. When it comes to trade, friends are made in the field, not in the courts.
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