A new year full of changes at HARTE-BAVENDAMM
New Partners – New Perspectives
Cathérine and Janna are not only lawyers with excellent expertise, but have also contributed significantly to the success of our firm over many years with their dynamism and commitment.
Their admission to the partnership is a sign of the dynamic development and continued success of our firm. We are proud to have such talented lawyers on our team and look forward to continuing our successful collaboration.
At the same time, their appointment marks an important milestone for HARTE-BAVENDAMM: as of 1 January 2024, we will have more women than men in the partnership for the first time.
New Year – New Look
But that is not the only change the new year brings for HARTE-BAVENDAMM. We have launched a new, completely re-designed website. Needless to say, we remain true to our roots and our credo: “Firm Foundations – Inspired Solutions”.
Our new look continues to be characterised by the backdrop of the Elbphilharmonie –Hamburg's most beautiful landmark and a source of inspiration for us every day when we look out of our office window.
A Look Into the Future
We firmly believe that a flexible, specialised unit such as ours is best placed to meet the needs of our clients. We will continue to strive to provide the highest level of personalised and tailor-made legal solutions.
Thank you for your trust. We look forward to starting this exciting new year together with you.
Your team from HARTE-BAVENDAMM
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Trademark owners are regularly confronted with the proof of use requirement in disputes before the national trademark offices or courts. After expiry of the 5-year grace period, trademarks that have not been put to genuine used may be declared invalid and thus removed from the register, or disregarded in opposition proceedings. This is because, in principle, anyone who registers a trademark must also make genuine use of it for the registered goods and services. This makes it all the more important for trademark owners whose marks are outside the grace period to be able to prove the genuine use of their marks.
Today we would like to take you away from the legal side of things and introduce you to the "HB Academy" – our internal learning program. In addition to training legal expertise, the program also deliberately focuses on "soft skills" and the personal development of our junior lawyers. Last week, we hosted a half-day workshop with Carmen Schön, who gave us some useful impulses on how to improve our appearance, voice and the perfect pitch.
The year 2024 not only provides an extra day in February, but above all one thing: sports, sports and more sports. With the European Men's Handball and Football Championships, two mega events are taking place in Germany this year. Then there is the European Women's Handball Championship, taking place inter alia in Switzerland and Austria, and of course the Summer Olympics in Paris. As always, numerous companies are ready and waiting to benefit from the pulling effect of such major events. Reason enough for us to shed some light on what you need to bear in mind with event-related advertising measures and what obstacles need to be overcome when it comes to so-called “ambush” marketing. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Frida Felixmüller, who joined us during her legal clerkship, for her great support with this article.
In the fashion industry, first names are often used to designate clothing models. In recent years, this has led to a large number of legal disputes. In particular, the trademark “SAM”, “MO” and “Isha” has been used to issue warning letters to numerous companies that sold clothing models under these names or at least used these signs in their product descriptions. While the courts of instance initially ruled very generously in favour of trademark owners, the ruling practice has changed in recent years under the influence of the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) and trademark use and thus infringement has been assumed less frequently. The decisive factor for the question of trademark use is always whether the public perceives the first name as a (secondary) mark or as a mere model designation. Below we provide a brief overview of the change in case law and its practical relevance.