Is the visualization of Stuttgart 21 subject to copyright protection?

In the context of our application for an interlocutory injunction, the Regional Court (LG) Hamburg had to decide the legal question of whether a rendered image of the new Stuttgart main railway station is subject to copyright protection. A German public broadcasting corporation was of the opinion that the visualization created by our client did not enjoy copyright protection as a computer image.

Our client creates photorealistic illustrations of architectural projects in the form of both still and moving images. For a client, our client produced a corporate film for the major project Stuttgart 21. Individual images from it were used alongside the visualized film for the client's public relations work in connection with the conversion of Stuttgart's terminal railway station into an underground railway station.

The public broadcasting television station used this image both in several of its TV news broadcasts and on its website without naming our client as the author of the work. However, our client had expressly reserved this right contractually with his client for each publication of his visualizations, which was also known to the TV station.

On behalf of and in the name of our client, we subsequently sent a cease-and-desist letter to the TV station and demanded cessation of the copyright infringement. However, the television station did not comply with this demand. In particular, they were of the opinion that the image of the future Stuttgart railway station created by our client was not a copyright-protected work. We did not share this legal interpretation.

Court decision
And we were right. In its judgment of 07.01.2011 – Az. 310 O 1/11 the Regional Court (LG) Hamburg confirmed the work quality of his computer-generated visualization.

The film, from which the individual image came, was to be regarded as a copyright-protected work of cinematography. By submitting the offer forming the basis of the project, circumstances became evident from which the intellectual creative performance required for work quality could be derived. The Hamburg judges also made it explicitly clear that the work quality was not precluded by the fact that the visualization was created using a computer. This did not stand in the way of work quality.

The amount in dispute was set by the Regional Court (LG) Hamburg at EUR 100,000.00.

Conclusion

When assessing the copyright protection capability of computer-generated images, it always depends on the individual case. The Higher Regional Court (OLG) Cologne had in its judgment of 20.03.2009 – Az. 6 U 183/08 regarding computer graphics of two trade fair booths denied the copyright protection capability of the computer images due to lack of work quality. In the present case of a very elaborate visualization of the future Stuttgart main railway station, however, the Hamburg judges rightly recognized a copyright-protected work.