Les Pauls?

Are the guitars in the above pic Les Pauls? No they are not. They are merely copies (my Edwards & Grass Roots singlecuts- I favour them to the Gibsons). I talked to someone recently about Les Pauls & the lad was whining endlessly about the instrument quality & body chambering until he mentioned the Japanese Les Pauls being more worthy in terms of craftsmanship proportionate to the asking price. So my natural question to him was, which Les Pauls are made in Japan? The answer was Edwards, so I duly told him they aren't Les Pauls, they are merely copies. We, lazy folks, find it convenient to refer to them as such. Only Gibsons are Les Pauls. But he insisted they are by virtue of design. So there we have it; insistence based on a personal interpretation.