Microsoft is considered the market leader in standard software, i.e. the company sells programs that the average computer user usually needs: Operating system, Internet browser, applications for writing, calculating and presenting, for managing and evaluating data records, for editing photos. What people need.
The capitalization key as an economic good
When purchasing the software, the customer receives an activation key with which the programs can be activated on the PC or laptop. Anyone dealing in Microsoft products therefore always sells them with an activation key that clearly identifies the respective product. If the program is made available for download, the activation key is essentially the product being sold. The special significance of this code for the use of the software should therefore be clear, as should the fact that any transfer of the activation key (and thus the ability to use the product) – apart from copyright issues – takes place under the usual conditions of the free economy, i.e. it must be legally acquired before being transferred.
Test purchases expose unauthorized trading in activation keys
At least you would think so. In the harsh reality, things sometimes look different. For example, a company that deals in Microsoft products, among other things, discovered during the course of test purchases from a competitor that the competitor was offering the same products with activation keys that belong to it under a license agreement with Microsoft.
Frankfurt am Main Regional Court issues temporary injunction
Because this happened not just once, but several times and the competitor did not respond appropriately to a warning, the applicant obtained a temporary injunction. With its decision, the 8th Chamber for Commercial Matters at the Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main put a stop to the competitor’s unlawful conduct. If he does not refrain from offering and/or selling Microsoft programs using the product key in the applicant’s possession, he faces a fine of up to 250,000 euros or imprisonment of up to six months (LG Frankfurt a.M., Beschluss vom 23.8.2022, Az. 3-08 O 47/22). So this is no small matter.
(Disclosure: LHR represented the applicant).
Update 28.9.2022
The defendant has submitted a final declaration and thus recognized the interim injunction of the Frankfurt Regional Court as the final ruling.
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