I can't gloat about this - I think both Flying V and Firebird/Thunderbird (as well as the Explorer) were iconic and idiosyncratic Gibson shapes that stood out from any other bass or guitar shape. I don't agree with the Court's assessment at all that only a few guitar nerds might be able to see the difference. They were/are radical designs.
And that Herr Wilfer, the ole Spector and Steinberger-copy cat who defends his own (butt-ugly) Warwick headstock design so zestily and ruthlessly against the smallest luthiers, is behind this now leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Do as I say, don't do as I do, quite right.
Of course they're iconic and idiosyncratic designs, but trademark law, as it stands, doesn't take that into account. As Fender found out, you can't let others copy your designs for years and then expect a trademark to stand.
They're all hypocrites. Gibson started using Fender shapes in the mid-80s at Epiphone, and then there was the notorious
Gibson Hendrix Strat.
I don't know what Herr Wilfer is doing to smaller luthiers, but the headstock shape seems to be pretty secure for trademark holders. Besides, Wilfer was libeled for years by Stuart Spector
after he sold his company to Kramer. Wilfer changed the headstock shape of the Streamer and that satisifed Kramer but Spector couldn't let it go. Then when Kramer went belly up, years before he bought his name back out of the Kramer bankruptcy, Spector started making his old designs under the name Stuart Spector Design even though he had argued for years that they belonged to Kramer. At the same time, he was making a doublecut Les Paul shape guitar. And when that consortium of 20 companies challenged Fender's body shape trademarks and got them cancelled, Spector was the lead company of the consortium. The ultimate hypocrite.