The Suzuki Violin Company was established in 1887 by Masakichi Suzuki and has been making guitars since the early 1900s. Yasuma carried on for a while after this lawsuit - but had to alter their dreadnought design. In the 1970s Martin won a copyright infringment case against Yasuma and as a result many Yasuma guitars imported into the USA had to be destroyed. The guitars most commonly seen are Martin style dreadnought acoustics and may be branded "K Yasuma & Co", Aanton or Angelica. Yasuma made guitars, mandolins and ukuleles. Yasuma Musical Instrument Company was established in 1950 in Nagoya by Kimihiko Yasuma.
These were made by Hayashi in Matsumoto, Japan - the company where Headway & Deviser founder Yasuo Momose worked. The "CF Mountain" logo was designed to look similar to "CF Martin". Go to Takamine pageĬF Mountain acoustic guitars were made in 1970s Japan and were copies of Martin designs.
The Takamine D28 copies are probaly the best known of the lawsuit acoustics. Jagard acoustic guitars and mandolins were made in the 1970s in Japan by Terada.
This is the original CF Martin logo they were all copying. Here are some of the ones I have found so far: Many of these copies had logos that also copied the Martin style. I don't know whether there was ever an actual lawsuit. These are often referred to as "lawsuit guitars" because Martin contacted these Japanese manufacturers in the 1970s (or early 1980s) asking them to stop copying their logo. In 1970s Japan there was a healthy industry making copies of the popular Martin dreadnought acoustic models.
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