IP News
Name rights: There`s nobody else like you – Dr. Carsten Albrecht`s Interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung
Again and again, name rights lead to disputes. This was the case in Hamburg, where the Otto group deemed that its rights were violated by the name of a Hamburg restaurant.
However, the court did not share that point of view. On this matter, the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper interviewed trademark expert Dr. Carsten Albrecht from the Hamburg FPS office. Dr. Albrecht did not consider the use of a first name to be a sufficiently strong identifying feature and, given the commonness of the name Otto, was not surprised by the outcome of the proceedings. Even though it often seems heartless for a group to sue a small company, it should be noted that groups often invest a lot of money in building a brand," continued Dr. Albrecht.