“We urge Fender to stop issuing cease and desist demands against manufacturers, distributors and dealers and to return to a fair, cooperative partnership”: Thomann, the world’s largest music retailer, is suing Fender over cease-and-desists

Fender Player II Stratocaster.

The world’s largest music retailer, Thomann, is suing Fender in an extraordinary escalation over the guitar company’s recent wave of cease-and-desists.

Thomann, whose in-house guitar brand Harley Benton was hit by a cease-and-desist of its own, has become the first firm to take Fender to court in the ongoing Stratocaster copyright dispute.