Copyright protection for sandals?

Can sandals enjoy copyright protection? Indeed, sandals can be protected as works of applied art, the Regional Court (LG) Cologne decided in a legal dispute between two shoe manufacturers.

The subject of the dispute concerned two shoe models for which an internationally operating shoe manufacturer claimed copyright protection. The two shoe models were distributed by a licensee of the defendant shoe manufacturer.

After the licensee received a cease-and-desist letter, it named the defendant shoe manufacturer as the supplier. A corresponding cease-and-desist letter to the supplier was unsuccessful. Consequently, an application for interim relief for an injunction was filed with the LG Cologne.

LG Cologne confirms copyright protection for sandals

By means ofjudgment of 03.03.2022 – 14 O 366/21 the LG Cologne prohibited the supplier from offering and placing copies of the two shoe models in circulation.

The two sandal models constitute personal intellectual creations, according to the court.

The author of the sandals experimented with certain materials and design elements in such a way and combined them with one another that his respective result possessed a creative character, the court found. This applied regardless of the fact that individual of these design elements were already known beforehand and were found in sandals by other manufacturers. For in their unified combination lay the originality of the design conceived by the author. He thereby sufficiently distanced himself individually from the usual and known forms of representation for sandal models prevailing in his field of creative work and undertook artistic design beyond the predetermined form.

The sandals as a creation bore a personal signature, which is also found in further – non-disputed – sandals by the author.

The distribution of the sandals in dispute violated the copyright distribution rights of the shoe manufacturer, since the sandals offered incorporated all relevant design features.

Conclusion

Sandals and shoes can also enjoy copyright protection as works of applied art. The decisive factor is the existence of an intellectual creative level that is characterised by individuality and originality. When this is the case depends on the particular circumstances of each individual case and must ultimately be assessed by the court on the basis of the respective design features of the shoe model. As a manufacturer of footwear, one should always take into account the possible copyright protection of one's own models and those of competitors.