Copyright protection for product descriptions on the Internet?

The Regional Court (LG) Hamburg had to decide, in the context of an application for a preliminary injunction, whether product descriptions of the services offered copied from a competitor's website and their use on the applicant's own webpage must be discontinued due to infringement of copyright.

The respondent copied several pages from the applicant's website and used them on its own internet presence.

Court decision
By Beschluss vom 30.06.2011 – Az. 308 O 159/11 the Regional Court (LG) Hamburg confirmed the copyright protection of the applicant's texts and prohibited the respondent from using the texts. According to the low threshold of the "kleine Münze" (small coin doctrine), copyright protection as literary works should be granted to these texts. In the opinion of the Regional Court (LG), the changes made to the applicant's texts in the texts fall within the scope of unfree adaptation.

Since the use took place without the required consent of the holder of the exclusive rights of use, it was unlawful. Whether the respondent assumed that the use of the texts was lawful is irrelevant, as the bona fide acquisition of copyright is not possible. Furthermore, a claim for discontinuation does not require culpable conduct.

The value in dispute for the proceedings was set at €25,000.00.

Conclusion

Even comparatively simple advertising texts and descriptions can enjoy copyright protection as literary works. Anyone who simply copies and uses such texts from third parties on the Internet must reckon with corresponding legal sanctions.