Fender has sent a cease-and-desist letter to PRS Guitars, targeting the Silver Sky, its S-style signature guitar built in collaboration with John Mayer.
The action is a bid to enforce legal protection for Fender's famous Stratocaster guitar, which it believes the Silver Sky copies. However, in a statement, PRS said it "disagrees with Fender's assessment and declined to comment further." The company added separately that it is "aware and investigating" with no further comment at that time.
The Silver Sky, co-designed with Mayer and first released in 2018, arrived four years after Mayer parted ways with Fender in 2014. Its double-cutaway body closely echoes the Stratocaster silhouette that Fender now argues is legally protectable, making it a natural focal point for the company's enforcement push.
PRS is not the first builder to receive such a letter. Fender's campaign had already swept up several U.S. guitar companies before reaching one of the industry's best-known names. LsL Instruments, a small family-run California shop specializing in vintage-inspired S-style guitars, was the first to go public about receiving a cease-and-desist. The letters, in some cases, go beyond halting production, demanding that companies recall guitars already sold into the EU and destroy remaining stock.
The legal foundation for Fender's push comes from a Regional Court of Düsseldorf ruling against a Chinese manufacturer that had been selling Strat-style guitars through AliExpress into European markets. That decision recognized the Stratocaster body shape as a protected work of applied art under German and European law, and Fender has characterized it as a precedent with international reach.
With PRS now in the mix, Fender's campaign has moved from boutique builders to a company with global distribution and one of the most commercially successful Strat-adjacent guitars on the market.
The Silver Sky's debut came roughly eight years before this cease-and-desist landed. The guitar sold more than the Stratocaster in 2022 and 2023, and has has been among the best-selling in the past three years.
