Germany, a legal report 2016 Trademarks, designs and unfair competition part 2

BIE mei/juni 2017, p. 106-108, Ulrich Hildebrandt: “It is an EU wide problem to harmonize certain provisions in unfair competition law and trademark law, namely the protection against a deception of origin. Recently, the BGH had a case where the owner of a younger right tried to base its claim against the owner of an older right on unfair competition law. The BGH missed the opportunity to have the related questions clarified by the CJEU but instead decided by itself ‘The application of unfair competition provisions for the protection against a deception of origin according to §5(1)2 No.1 and (2) UWG has to avoid contradictions with trademark law on a case-by-case basis.”