Under the heading “Wir laufen für den Frieden” (We run for peace) the Berlin company run takes place for the 20th time this year. Our Berlin colleagues are once again taking part with great pleasure and commitment.

As in previous years, donations are collected for charitable purposes during the run. This year’s donations of EUR 13,200 will go to the “Stiftung RTL – Wir helfen Kindern” (RTL Foundation – We help children) and the “Sonnenhof, ein Hospiz für Kinder, Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene der Björn Schulz Stiftung ” (Sonnenhof, a hospice for children, adolescents and young adults of the Björn Schulz Foundation).

The Regional Court of Munich I grants protection of reputation to Hofbräu München’s trade marks and corporate identifiers “Hofbräuhaus”.

A dispute between Hofbräu München, represented by BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT attorney at law Claudia Deppe, and John Scheller, owner of four Edeka stores in Dresden, which has lasted for more than ten years, has come to an end with a court settlement.

In the oral hearing at the end of February 2022, the Regional Court Munich I had come to the preliminary legal assessment that the lawsuit of Hofbräu München had good chances of success at least because of the reputation of the earlier rights of Hofbräu München to the designation “Hofbräuhaus”.

In order to finally end the long-standing conflict and in view of the costs and time involved in continuing through further instances, the court recommended that the legal dispute should be settled by means of a compromise. This could include in particular that Mr. Scheller withdraws the registration of his trademark „Seit 1872 Dresdner Hofbrauhaus“ and ceases to use this mark. In return, Hofbräu München should waive to claim damages.

The conflict was triggered in spring 2011 when the defendant applied for registration of the German word and figurative mark “Seit 1872 Dresdner Hofbrauhaus“ The owner of four Edeka stores in Dresden has had a beer brewed outside Dresden and sold in his stores under this word/figurative mark since 2011.

Hofbräu München initially filed an opposition with the DPMA against the registration of the defendant’s word/figurative mark on the basis of its earlier trade mark rights to the designations “Hofbräuhaus” and “Hofbräu” and, in parallel to these opposition proceedings, which have not yet been concluded, repeatedly made attempts to reach a settlement.

However, as the defendant did not want to give up its trade mark, continued to offer and advertise its beer under the disputed trade mark and ran a café in one of its Edeka stores under the name “DRESDNER HOFBRAUHAUS”, Hofbräu München filed an infringement action with the Munich Regional Court I in November 2020.

With the action, Hofbräu München claimed in particular that the defendant ceases to use the disputed figurative mark as well as the declaration of invalidity of this mark and based its claims, inter alia, on the reputation of its earlier trade mark rights in the designations “Hofbräuhaus” and „Hofbräu“ for beer and gastronomy services, as evidenced by survey reports.

After both the degree of distinctiveness of Hofbräu München’s earlier trade marks “Hofbräuhaus” and “Hofbräu” and their reputation were questioned in the opposition proceedings, the Regional Court Munich I even expressed in the oral hearing that it considered the reputation of these earlier trade mark rights of Hofbräu München to be an obvious fact known to the courts.

In the meantime, the parties have settled the dispute in accordance with the court’s suggestion.

Representing Hofbräu München: Claudia Deppe, attorney at law BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT

It is generally known that women in leading positions have an extremely positive influence on the culture of a company as well as on its working atmosphere. Employee motivation and customer satisfaction are strengthened and image and success are promoted in the long term.

In contrast, women are still underrepresented in numerous professional fields and corporate structures are adapted to the needs of a predominantly male management team. Even in the field of intellectual property, female patent attorneys and lawyers are still in the minority.

The non-profit organisation “women in ip” has set itself the task of changing this. BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT is pleased to support this network to the best of its ability in the future.

“We at BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT also see the urgent need to promote women in a professional context”, says Silke Freund, BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT partner and lawyer. “However, this does not stop at optimising the internal working environment. Women must become aware of their strengths and learn to use them in a targeted manner. This requires professional exchange and emotional support. This is what women in ip provides at the highest international level and this is the context in which our firm is happy to get involved.”

“women in ip e. V.” was founded to offer women working in the field of intellectual property a platform for networking and mutual support.

Women patent attorneys and attorneys-at-law, judges, patent engineers as well as candidates and members of the Opposition and Appeal Boards of the European Patent Office meet regularly at events or continue their education in technical and training seminars. In addition, women entering the profession have the opportunity to benefit from the industry expertise of experienced colleagues within the framework of a mentoring programme.

The article “Why Metadata Matter for the Future of Copyright” by BOEHMERT & BOEHMERT attorney Dr. Martin Schaefer was online for only about one month and immediately landed in seventh place in the ranking of the most read posts on the Kluwer Copyright Blog in 2020.

In his November 27, 2020 paper, Dr. Schaefer addresses the importance of metadata for the future of copyright law – recognizing that metadata is essential to the functioning of the market for copyrighted content. Furthermore successful market development requires administrative means to ensure proper licensing and revenue allocation in a world of highly interconnected, interactive content.

In light of numerous failed projects based on central databases, Dr. Schaefer argues for a metadata search engine as a decentralized, non-commercial open source tool for searching and enriching metadata. In this way, it would be possible to protect the interests of owners of proprietary databases as well as keep out intruders who are only interested in enriching themselves from data assets.

The detailed blog post by Dr. Martin Schaefer is available in full here.

About the Kluwer Copyright Blog
The Kluwer Copyright Blog is a publication of Kluwer Law International with information and news about European copyright law. It is compiled by a group of leading experts, consisting of practicing lawyers and academics, to report on the latest developments.