Search results : 1348

In a ruling of 14 August 2013, the Landgericht Köln (Cologne District Court - LG) decided that advertising using a double of a famous person can be inadmissible even if there is no similarity between the facial features and external appearance of the double and the famous person. The famous person may be recognisable thanks to other details that characterise the person concerned. The complaint concerned a TV commercial for the defendant, a furniture store, which included a scene from a TV quiz show in which a presenter wearing glasses and a dark suit had asked a contestant the “all-important question”...

In a summary procedure, the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin (Berlin Administrative Court - VG) decided on 5 September 2013 (case no. VG 27 L 217.13) to refuse a request to inspect a study commissioned by the Bundesministerium des Innern (Federal Interior Ministry - BMI). It ruled that press information rights did not include such extensive access to official documents. A journalist from a daily newspaper had contacted the Bundesministerium des Innern and, as a member of the press, asserted a claim to receive information under Article 4(1) of the Berliner Pressegesetz (Berlin Press Act - BerlPrG), which...

In its decision of 17 July 2013, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) ruled that the copyright protection afforded under the Urheberrechtsgesetz (Copyright Act - UrhG) to books and stories, for example, also applied to literary characters. In the case at hand, the court decided that the children’s character “Pippi Longstocking” created by Astrid Lindgren was copyright protected as a “work of language” in the sense of Article 2(1)(1) UrhG. The combination of external features and specific personality traits justified the protection of a fictional character. The decision was based...

In a decision of 15 August 2013, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH) further clarified the extent of the duty of care of a file-hosting service provider and, in addition to the liability privileges enshrined in Articles 7(2) and 10 of the Telemediengesetz (Telemedia Act - TMG) and Articles 14(1) and 15(1) of the E-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC), demanded that hosting service providers be subject to a partly-proactive monitoring obligation. The ruling follows an action brought by the Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte (Society for...

According to media reports, the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court - BGH), in a ruling of 17 July 2013 (case no. I ZR 34/12), upheld an action brought by the Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentrale (Federation of German Consumer Organisations - vzbv) and prohibited the software firm Gameforge from advertising game accessories sold in connection with its online role-playing game “Runes of Magic”. The vzbv had already cautioned Gameforge in 2010 and had brought actions in the lower courts. However, these had been dismissed by both the Landgericht Berlin (Berlin District Court) and the Kammergericht...