New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Le Luth Dore (LLD), which successfully helped lead the worldwide lute revival when launched in 2015 by renowned CEO-Founder
Miguel Serdoura, is now threatened by unscrupulous music businesses engaged in alleged counterfeiting and deceptive sales and marketing. And the Paris-based company is fighting back.
"The impact of counterfeiters and shady marketers, who collectively have copied and sold LLD's trademarked lutes at a fraction of their regular retail price, has been a setback to our extraordinary team members and the company's bottom line," said Mr. Serdoura, the widely acclaimed lutenist and recording artist. He added, "We remain determined to fulfill our vital mission, unprecedented in the lute world since the 18century, and this means fighting for justice against the unfair and anti-competitive practices of the counterfeiters."
Mr. Serdoura, working closely with many exceptional European luthiers, international musicologists, and musicians devoted to the revival of early music, has personally overseen the rigid quality control of the precision manufacturing process in LLD's contracted China-based instrument production facility. "Attention to detail has allowed us to meet the needs of lute enthusiasts - from amateurs to professionals at all levels - who were clamoring for historically accurate, exquisite-sounding lutes that could be purchased at an affordable price," commented Mr. Serdoura. "It appears that our success was upsetting to those who saw their market share and profitability threatened."
So concerning is the illicit (or "gray market") lute trade, and its potential to undermine LLD, the subject was just addressed at the important International Conference of Lute Study in Higher Education, in Bremen, Germany.
Mr. Serdoura's lutes, sold by LLD directly not only to musicians but also universities and early music societies worldwide, have been knowingly and wrongfully copied, in breach of binding manufacturing agreements, down to the most minute detail - including the distinctive LLD logo. The copies were then marketed by unlicensed sellers in clear violation of established global copyright and trademark laws. LLD contends that the culprits, who it intends to name in legal proceedings, even pirated its proprietary designs for humidity-controlled lute cases, another reason why the company is urging buyers to be leery of sellers touting fine lutes and cases at prices that seem "too good to be true".
Mr. Serdoura, who has worked tirelessly and passionately as LLD's CEO, noted, "We will continue to fight for what is right on behalf of those who have expressed pure joy from playing their LLD lutes, and experiencing the captivating historical lute repertoire. And for their audiences, whose experiences have been a case of love at first listen."
In less than five years, Mr. Serdoura's lutes have earned high praise from gifted international lutenists. Famed Swiss-American Prof. Hopkinson Smith, of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Switzerland, calls LLD instruments "really impressive" and "an incomparable contribution to the music world". English lutenist Prof. Nigel North, at the Early
Music Institute,
Indiana University, and the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, adds, "I wish I had had such a great instrument when I first started the lute in 1969."
