Q: how can I find out if Gibson still has a patent on a GA-79RVT guitar amplifier made in 1961
A:
It would be highly unusual for something that came out in 1961 to still have a patent as patent term back then was 17 years from issue. However, if for some reason they battled for decades to get a patent out, then a patent application filed back then could come out tomorrow and have a term of 17 years. These are known as submarine patents as they stay submerged in the patent office for many years.
I would bet this is not the case. But to check -- you can do two things. One is to look at a new amplifier if they are still selling this model as they should be marking their patent numbers on the product or with the shipping material that comes with a new amp. The second thing you can do is to look for the name of the company that owns Gibson and see their list of patents at https://assignment.uspto.gov/patent/index.html#/patent/search. You can then look in Google Patents for patents that sound like they apply to amplifiers to see when they expired. Patents with patent numbers of 6,000,000 or less are likely to be expired.
I hope this helps.
Kevin E Flynn
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