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At the request of Lampmann, Haberkamm & Rosenbaum Rechtsanwälte (LHR), the Regional Court of Cologne (Regional Court of Cologne, decision of 8 May 2019, file no. 14 O 127/19) issued a copyright injunction issued against an online retailer.
This prohibits the applicant from making two plagiarised busts designed by the applicant publicly accessible.
In the event of non-compliance, a fine of up to € 250,000 or up to six months’ imprisonment may be imposed. The amount in dispute was set at € 20,000.
The decision is not final and was issued without an oral hearing. The defendant now has the legal remedy of an objection or clarification of the facts in the main proceedings.
Cologne artist was copied en masse in China
The applicant is an internationally renowned and recognised artist who is particularly involved in the creation of ceramics and especially with her own special type of ‘character heads’. On the basis of a trade fair brochure, she noticed that her works had been copied 1:1 both conceptually and in their individual design.
Particularly audacious: Last summer, a German company had proposed to the applicant a co-operation in the (mass) production of, among other things, the plants of interest here and – after the applicant left the enquiry unanswered – apparently then commissioned the production in China on its own initiative and then purchased the products from there.
Company issued a cease-and-desist declaration – but counterfeits were already widespread worldwide
The In response to an intervention by our law firm, the company issued a cease-and-desist declaration, provided information, recognised its obligation to pay damages on the merits and ordered the destruction of the counterfeits. However, the counterfeits then suddenly appeared worldwide, including in Spain, Australia and the USA. The applicant was therefore confronted on the one hand with extensive infringements of its copyright and on the other hand with the fact that every infringer questioned the applicant’s ownership of the rights due to the numerous plagiarised copies distributed.
Thankfully, at the request of LHR, the Cologne Regional Court put a stop to this activity, at least for Germany.
Lawyer Arno Lampmann from the law firm LHR:
“The infringement of intellectual property rights requires swift action. It is a race against time. Once – as here – plagiarism is out in the world on a massive scale, the damage increases on the one hand. But enforcing rights also becomes increasingly difficult. Not on a legal level, but on a factual level. This is because many retailers cannot understand the accusations if the counterfeits are offered and sold in numerous other places on the Internet. It is therefore particularly important to quickly illustrate the factual and legal situation with court decisions.”
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