Langenscheidt dictionaries – Yellow as a trademark – Frankfurter Rundschau

Langenscheidt dictionaries – Yellow as a trademark – Frankfurter Rundschau

September 18, 2014

Typical of Langenscheidt – blue “L” on a yellow background. Photo: AP

Yellow is typical of Langenscheidt dictionaries – the color should therefore not be used by the competition, as the Federal Court decides. The language learning software producer Rosetta Stone now has to do without the color

Karlsruhe -..

Yellow is typical of Langenscheidt dictionaries – the color should not therefore be used by the competition. In trademark dispute to the color yellow, the Bundesgerichtshof has given the Munich dictionary publishing right. The language learning software producer Rosetta Stone color may no longer use now. The highest German civil court justified this on Thursday so that the consumer could confuse the two brands because of the color. The Supreme Court saw a “high grade” goods and signs are similar (I ZR 228/12 Az .:).

Langenscheidt had to register yellow for his bilingual printed dictionaries 2010, the brand color. Because Rosetta Stone also employs a yellow tint in the website, in advertising and carton packaging, the Munich publishing house was a violation of its trademark rights asserted and Rosetta Stone sued for failure and damages. Before the Higher Regional Court of Cologne Langenscheidt already got 2012 right. In contrast, Rosetta Stone had filed an appeal. This has now rejected the defendant’s costs. Rosetta Stone no opinion was first to get

The color question employs the BGH but further:., The software manufacturer had requested the deletion of the Langenscheidt color brand. Whether the Federal Patent Court rejected the right to examine the Supreme Court in a second process. On October 23, the Supreme Court also intends to negotiate (document number C Eg 61/13). The First Civil Senate did not wait for the outcome of this proceeding because he “no overwhelming probability” saw that the mark is deleted, the presiding judge said on Thursday at the verdict

Also Sparkassen-red employs the courts

Characteristic of the Langenscheidt Dictionaries are for almost six decades, the yellow color and the blue” L “. So other language learning products of the company since 1986 designed. The language learning software producer Rosetta Stone offers in Germany since 2010 learning software for 33 languages ​​- and advertises it in yellow with black lettering and a blue logo

This Dictionaries and language learning software are both companies for the. consumer confusingly similar to, the BGH decided. “In high-grade goods and signs and the average distinctiveness of the suit mark the requirements of trademark confusion are met.”

While going color in advertisements or on a product usually as a design tool and only exceptionally be regarded as a trade. “On the domestic market of bilingual dictionaries but colors characterize the marking habits,” says the Supreme Court. Thus, there was yellow for Langenscheidt with a 60 percent market share in Germany, and green for the competition from the Klett-Verlag (20 percent market share).

By the way, not only fighting Langenscheidt his ” House color “: Even the red of the German Sparkassen busy for years the courts. 2007 was the color of the German Savings Banks and Giro Association registered as a trade mark, the German Patent and Trademark Office. In contrast, turned the competitor, the Spanish bank Santander, which uses an almost identical red. (AP)