A car dealer in Schweinfurt had advertised a car as "Our offer for the Olympics 2008". According to a ruling by the Regional Court of Nuremberg-Fürth, this does not constitute a violation of the law on the protection of the Olympic emblem and Olympic designations (OlympSchG).
A car dealer in Schweinfurt had an offer for a car on its website with the slogan "FlatRateEdition Beijing". Our offer for the 2008 Olympics. The German Olympic Sports Association (Deutscher Olympischer Sportbund e.V.) saw this as a violation of the OlympSchG, which protects, among other things, the name "Olympia". It therefore sent a warning to the car dealership. The car dealership then undertook to refrain from such advertising in future, but was not prepared to pay the lawyer's fees claimed by the Olympic Sports Confederation for the warning. The Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court dismissed the claim in its judgement of 12 December 2012.
In its judgement, the Regional Court stated that the term "Olympia", which is protected by law, had been used in business without the consent of the Olympic Sports Confederation as the owner of the property right. However, according to the legal regulation, this is only unlawful if there is a risk of confusion or if the reputation of the Olympic Games is unfairly impaired or exploited. Neither the one nor the other was the case here. In particular, the challenged advertising did not create the impression that the car dealership was a sponsor of the Olympic Games. The advertising also did not evoke the idea in customers that the vehicle offered was of a special, "Olympic" quality and, finally, the reputation of the Olympic Games was not impaired by the use of the slogan. Since there was therefore no infringement, the car dealer sued did not have to pay the warning costs.
(Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court, judgement of 12.12.2012, ref. no.: 3 O 10482/11)
Remark:
Pursuant to § 44 of the Ordinance on Jurisdictions in the Area of
of the State Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (GZVJu), the Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court has jurisdiction over all disputes under the OlympschG in the area of the Nuremberg and Bamberg Higher Regional Court districts.
Source: Press release by Dr Michael Hammer, Judge at the Nuremberg Higher Regional Court, Judicial Press Spokesperson
Goldberg Attorneys at Law 2013
Attorney at Law Michael Ullrich, LL.M. (Information Law)
Specialist lawyer for information technology law
E-mail: info@goldberg.de
