No infringement of copyright protected product at (international) trade fair in Germany
In a recent decision (file number I ZR 92/16), the German Federal Court of Justice ruled that the mere presentation of a product at a trade fair in Germany does not imply that the exhibitor specifically offers this product with the purpose to allow trade fair visitors to (later) purchase the product in the domestic market. Such deliberate advertising is not to be expected if the exhibitor clearly points out to the trade fair visitors that they cannot purchase or order the exhibited product because it reserves the right to make changes to the product.
The applicant is the legal successor of the licensee with the right to manufacture and distribute legless steel tubular chairs, following the example of a famous chair created in 1926, so called Mart-Stam-Chair.
The Defendant is a Polish company, which exhibited a similar chair model named “Zoo” in different versions at the international trade fair ORGATEC, Cologne, for trade professionals only, during the period from 21st to 25th October 2014, and depicted respetive chairs in various advertising materials and product catalogs, however, with the notice that (i) the collection could only be ordered from 2015 on, and that (ii) the “Zoo” series is still in the development stage. Further, on the floor of the defendant’s exhibition stand, right next to the chairs, the notice “prototype” was located.
Against this background, the plaintiff handed over a warning letter at the trade fair on 21 October 2014, setting a deadline to provide a signed cease and desist declaration until 8 pm on the same day. Following this, the parties started arguing about the reimbursement of the cost regarding the preparation of the warning letter.
Decision
In the first-instance proceedings before the district court of Dusseldorf (judgment of 18 June 2015, file number 14 c O 184/14) the court issued a partial dismissal of the claim based on the consideration that the warning letter was legitimate regarding the distribution and bringing to public of the pictures of the chairs, but not with respect to the reproduction of pictures of the chairs (reason: the calatogues were printed in Poland and not in Germany) and also not regarding the offering and distribution of the chairs. The appeal before the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, (judgment of 19 April 2016, file number I-20 U 99/15) by the plaintiff was unsuccessful. With the further appeal, the plaintiff continues to pursue its claims for reimbursement of additional costs, but in the end without success.
The further appeal was rejected by the German Federal Court of Justice, basically confirming the reasoning of the Court of Appeal. While the chairs shown on the trade fair do fall within the scope of the chairs of the plaintiff which are protected by copyright, neither the fact that the chairs were shown on the trade fair nor the fact that they were depicted in catalogues were considered an infringement of the plaintiffs rights of distribution, which means the right to offer the original or copies of the work to the public or to bring it to the market, according to Sec. 17 German Copyright Law. Instead, due to the notice “prototype” it is clear that the chairs were not dedicated to be delivered to (German) customers. Therefore, the defendant did not advertise for the acquisition of the chairs still to be produced later. Further, it cannot be established that the chairs in their final design fall into the scope of protection of the Mart-Stam-chair.
With reference to the earlier Keksstangen decision (GRUR 2015, 603 par. 21), the Federal Court of Justice stated that there is no empirical premise that the presentation of a product at an national trade fair should always encourage visitors to purchase this product in the domestic market. Thus, there is a regular lack of targeted advertising for the purchase of the exhibited product, if not a ready-for-sale product, but only a prototype or a design study is exhibited in order to test the reactions of the market to a product that is still in the devlopment stage (BGH, GRUR 2015, 603 ff. Par. 22 – Keksstangen). This applies in particular to international fairs, which also service to establish business relations between foreign parties without domestic reference.
As a result, the Federal Court of Justice concluded that the Court of Appeals, without error of law, assumed that the exhibition of the chair model “Zoo” at the trade fair did not constitute a risk of first infringement of the exclusive right of the owner of the copyright to distribute the Mart-Stam-Chair.
Conclusions
Already back in 2010 the Federal Court of Justice ruled in the Pralinenform II decision (22 April 2010, file number I ZR 17/05 – a trademark infringement case) that like in the above mentioned Keksstangen decision (a case regarding infringement of the Act against Unfair Competition) the mere presentation of a product at a German trade fair cannot automatically be considered an offer of these products or a putting of these products on the German market. With the above mentioned decision the Federal Court of Justice now extents those reflections to copyright cases and confirms that even in the case of a product presentation in Germany, an initial risk of copyright infringement (and, possibly, other legal violations) may not be accepted, even if the exhibited product falls within the scope of a copyrighted work. This applies, in particular, to an international trade fair, which is characterized by the fact that exhibitors from various countries are addressing domestic and foreign customers. This decision is in line with the above mentioned earlier decisions, which as a result seem to indicate a trend to a more restrictive assessment of intellectual property infringements on trade fairs. However, while the Federal Court of Justice until now has not issued a corresponding judgment in a patent infringement case, according to settled case law of the Higher Regional Courts the presentation of a product at a domestic trade fair constitutes an offer within the meaning of Sec. 9(2) No. 1 German Patent Act, unless the trade fair is a mere performance show. It remains to be seen whether the Federal Court of Justice will expand the above considerations also to corresponding patent infringement cases.
Nevertheless, it shall be noted that also in the above mentioned case regarding the Mart-Stam-Chair the infringement claim was legitimate as regards the distribution (Verbreiten) and bringing to public (Öffentlich-Zugänglichmachen) of the pictures of the chairs in catalogues. Thus, exhibitors and right holders participating in German trade fairs in the future should carefully consider the above, in particular the exhibitor should avoid to hand out or present on the exhibition stand catalogues and advertisement material containing the respective potential infringing product, while in contrast, the right holder should specifically look for respective materials because he might not be able to claim infringement due to the mere exhibition of the product itself.
