News
975 articles
24 June 2014
Sports associations and sports managers as competitors?
Sports associations are predestined for arbitrary conduct due to the prevailing single-entity principle. Such conduct is regularly found in athlete agreements and can bring about considerable legal and practical obstacles for the athlete and his advisers, in particular those advisers who depend on the marketing of the athlete and his or her personality for their livelihood. The question regularly arises as to how a balance […]
Read more21 June 2014
Beer not "vitali-zing" after all
"Vitalizing" – with this wordplay, boxer Vitali Klitschko had advertised an alcohol-free beer. Now the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Hamm has decided that this advertising claim by the brewery was not permissible in this form.
Read more19 June 2014
Internet access blocked at schools
The municipal data protection and IT security officer of the City of Stuttgart has blocked internet access at around 140 of the 167 Stuttgart schools under municipal authority. The schools are still operating on the Windows XP operating system, for which Microsoft ended support on 8 April.
Read more17 June 2014
WhatsApp unreachable?
WhatsApp's terms and conditions must be accessible in German language in Germany. The Regional Court (LG) Berlin also identifies further improvements needed concerning the imprint of the messenger service.
Read more13 June 2014
Supervisory authorities can be wrong
Can a data protection supervisory authority order the removal of video cameras in the case of unlawful video surveillance of office buildings? The Administrative Court of Oldenburg had to decide on this matter.
Read more11 June 2014
Digital Schools and Data Protection
Many school principals, teachers and students wish for increased use of new media in school lessons, i.e. mobile devices for each student and digital textbooks, but above all also the merging of teaching and the internet. The concerns lie in data protection: how are personal data of students handled? A question that is discussed daily in the press by internet users [...]
Read more10 June 2014
Reporting on children of prominent figures?
The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) had to decide whether the press may name the children of a prominent person and their relationship to the prominent figure in the course of their reporting, or whether this violates the child's right to informational self-determination.
Read more06 June 2014
No reimbursement of DPMA examination fees
If an applicant for a patent has filed an examination request and paid the examination fee, they have no entitlement to reimbursement of this fee if they later withdraw the patent application or if the application is deemed to be withdrawn. This also applies if the patent office has not yet commenced examination of the application.
Read more03 June 2014
The less planned the design, the more permissible the use of the work?
When copyrighted works may be reproduced, distributed and publicly communicated as 'essential accompaniment' is of particular importance for the production of feature films and documentary films. Nevertheless, this question remains essentially unclear even 30 years after its statutory regulation. An interesting decision has now come from the field of advertising.
Read more03 June 2014
Summer, sun, bikini…
Through the publication of a photograph showing a celebrity and incidentally also a woman wearing a bikini, the right to one's own image as well as the general right of personality is violated and must therefore be discontinued. A claim for compensation does not exist, however. The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Karlsruhe recently decided this.
Read more02 June 2014
Google form unlocked
Following the decision of the EuGH of 13.05.2014 (we have reported on this), Google, as a search engine operator, must, within the scope of its powers and capabilities, ensure that its activities are in compliance with the data protection directive. Under certain conditions, Google is therefore obliged to remove links that appear in a search for a person and refer to publications about that person […]
Read more28 May 2014
Imitation of luxury handbags
The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Cologne had to decide whether a handbag constituted an unfair imitation of the "Le Pliage" model by manufacturer Longchamp. A corresponding action in France had previously been dismissed by the Court of Cassation (Cour de Cassation) in Paris.
Read more28 May 2014
Cease-and-desist declaration by minors ineffective?
The Regional Court (LG) Düsseldorf had to clarify the indeed significant legal question of whether a minor engaged in trade with the permission of his parents can issue effective cease-and-desist declarations with contractual penalty undertakings in the course of conducting his business operations, or whether this obligation rests with his legal guardians.
Read more27 May 2014
Termination of Undertakings to Desist
Currently, the implementation of the Consumer Rights Directive by 13.06.2014 is imminent, which demands a great deal from online and offline retailers. Efforts are being made intensively with respect to the new legal situation to develop new ordering procedures, fulfil information obligations, and redesign withdrawal instructions in order to be up to date by 13.06.2014. However, it is often overlooked that in the past undertakings to desist – for example, […]
Read more26 May 2014
File-sharing lawsuit by Waldorf Frommer dismissed
The Local Court (AG) Munich has dismissed a lawsuit concerning alleged illegal file-sharing and has taken a critical stance on the legal principle of the "presumption of actual involvement" in this context.
Read more25 May 2014
"Hard Rock Café Heidelberg" allowed to keep on rocking
The "Hard Rock Cafe Heidelberg" may continue to be operated under this designation. However, no articles may be sold there that are marked with the internationally known "Hard-Rock-Cafe-Logo".
Read more24 May 2014
Google surpasses Apple…
…as the world's most valuable brand! As every year, the communications agency MillwardBrown has published a list of the 100 most valuable brands, the so-called 'BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands'. In doing so, Google has overtaken the Apple brand.
Read more23 May 2014
No erotic mementos
As a matter of principle, a former partner is entitled to keep photographs or films of the other person taken during the relationship even after the relationship has ended. However, does this also apply to erotic and intimate recordings? The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Koblenz has now ruled on this matter.
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