Summary of the German Version of the following Tribunal Decision:
Source: Original – German Federal Supreme Court (BGH) Judgement of the 20 September 2018 – I ZR 71/17 – Industrial Sewing Machines concerning paragraphs 3, 4 No. 3 and 4 section 1 phase 1.
Translation provided by Noemi Bellini for Horak Rechtsanwälte mbB.
This specific case has had a particular importance for the development and application of the German UWG – Act on Unfair Competition in the last years.
The case concerns the alleged misused, and infringing of particular competition norms of an already existing industrial machinery invention. The facts of the case are as follows:
“The applicant is a globally active company which also manufactures industrial sewing machines. The defendant is a company based in C. which also manufactures industrial sewing machines and presented its products at the international “Texprocess 2013” trade fair in Frankfurt in June 2013. In the catalogue on display at the defendant´s stand, five models were presented which were almost identical to the plaintiff’s models in term of appearance, technical performance data and for two models operating instructions. Both the exhibition stand and the sewing machines shown in the brochure were clearly marked with the “S.” sign.” from the official tribunal decision of 20.09.2019.