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In a ruling of 29 April 2014 (case no. VI ZR 137/13), the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) granted an appeal filed by a magazine and dismissed a complaint lodged by the adopted child of a famous television presenter, who had sought an injunction against the publication of information about the parent/child relationship between them. The plaintiff had been adopted by a famous TV presenter and his wife in 2000. Until 2009, details of the parent/child relationship between the adopted minor and the TV presenter, including the plaintiff’s name and age and her parents’ names, had been...

On 15 April 2014, the German media authorities’ Kommission für Zulassung und Aufsicht (Commission on Licensing and Supervision - ZAK) issued its first decision on the lawfulness of virtual product placement. The investigation concerned the virtual placement of a poster advertising the film “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters” in the RTL2 programme “Berlin Tag & Nacht” in February 2013, coinciding with the cinema release of the film. The ZAK concluded that the 15-second sequence did not breach the Land media authorities’ advertising regulations. The film poster had been embedded in the programme in...

The Bundesministerium für Justiz und Verbraucherschutz (Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection) has tabled a bill designed to tighten German sex crime legislation. The bill is designed to transpose into national law the Council of Europe Conventions on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (ETS 201 - Lanzarote Convention, 25.10.2007), and on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (ETS 210 - Istanbul Convention, 11.5.2011), which have been signed by the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as Directive 2011/93/EU of the...

According to media reports, at the beginning of April 2014 the Oberlandesgericht München (Munich Appeal Court - OLG) recommended an out-of-court settlement in the case concerning the signature tune of the Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) news programme “heute journal” (case no. 6 U 21 65/13). The case followed a complaint by the Birnbach music publisher about the current version of the news programme’s jingle, written in 2009. The plaintiff argued that the broadcaster’s arrangement of the 1962 classic melody “Fanfarenblues”, created without the composer’s permission, as required by Article 23...

In a decision of 8 April 2014, the Oberlandesgericht Köln (Cologne Appeal Court - OLG) ruled that Google can be obliged to delete content in the form of “autocomplete” suggestions that breach personality rights (case no. 15 U 199/11). In the proceedings, a public limited company and its chairman had lodged a claim against the search engine operator after Google had suggested the terms “Scientology” and “Betrug” (the German word for “fraud”) when the chairman’s name was entered. The chairman claimed that this infringed his personality rights, while his company believed that it damaged its commercial...