[Harp-L] Melody MakerTM and Lee Oskar

["jazmaan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <dmf273@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dave wrote:

"I'm not trying to be a jerk but Lee Oskar is after all one of us. Since 
'Melody Maker' is a trademarked name it's a shame for people to violate it. 
Is there another name for this tuning that people can use when the do it 
their self on another brand of harp? Paddy country is a bit cumbersome, but 
it says the same thing of you are not talking about a Lee Oskar harp.

Peace and music,
Dave"

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The only way to "violate" a trademark is to SELL a product that uses the same trademark (or one
that's confusingly similar).   If people want to tune their own harmonicas to "Melody Maker"
tuning and refer to the tuning as "Melody Maker", it doesn't violate Lee Oskar.   In my opinion it
honors him.  In fact, Lee encourages people to experiment with retuning their own harps.   At the
San Jose Masterclass he distributed charts with several of his tunings and taught people how to
retune their own harps. (Preferably using the kit he sells!)

To my knowledge Lee has never tried to patent his tunings.