GermanyIntellectual Property
(Local Court of Berlin, November 20, 1996 - 97 O 193/96; Court of Appeal of Berlin, March 25, 1997 - 5 U 659/97)
For the first time, German courts have not only granted protection against an illicit use of domain names registered under the German top level domain ".de", but have also prohibited the use of an American URL under the top level domain ".com" in Germany.
The plaintiff, a German company called "Concert Concept", brought a preliminary injunction claim against an American provider of internet Web Sites who had reserved the domain names "concert-concept.com" and "concert-concept.de" in his name. The domain name "concert-concept.com" was registered with the American INTERNIC, whereas the German "concert-concept.de" had been reserved at the German correspondent to the INTERNIC, the DE-NIC.. The plaintiff sought to prohibit the defendant's use of both the German and the American domain name on the basis of his right to bear a corporate name under German law. Both
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