Location name in internet address
January 16, 2010 | 25,00 EUR | answered by Dr. Dr. Danjel-Philippe Newerla
Dear Sir or Madam,
There are judgments in which the use of a location name in the internet address is prohibited. Then I found judgments in which it is allowed:
Higher Regional Court Hamm
Judgment of 19.06.2008
4 U 63/08
"lawyer-firm-locationname.de"
We (Ballet Dance School) plan to register a domain with, for example, "ballet-locationname" or "jazz-dance-locationname".
I must mention that these are "sub-urls" for advertising purposes with redirection to the main address. Are there any indications here that suggest whether one would be violating any existing judgments or even laws?
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards,
Thomas Rapciak
Dear inquirer,
Thank you for your inquiry!
Taking into account the information you provided, I am happy to answer your questions as follows:
In the end, you have done a very good and clean legal research. Whether it is a main or subdomain is not fundamentally important in this context.
As you have correctly researched, the majority of case law assumes that the use of place names in domain names violates the law for the protection of unfair competition (UWG).
The judgment from Hamburg that you cited seems to be more of an exception or a special case.
Ultimately, I strongly advise against using place names as you intended. Otherwise, there is a risk that you could be warned by a competitor, which would result in significant legal costs. In this context, § 14 UWG (so-called “flying jurisdiction”) is the problem.
This legal provision states that a violation of competition law can be punished and brought to court wherever it occurred. In the internet, this naturally includes the entire Federal Republic of Germany, so the competitor who wants to warn you can choose the court. They could theoretically choose a court that declares the use of place names in domains as anti-competitive.
I hope that my explanations have helped you. Feel free to contact me through the follow-up option on this portal or via my email address.
I would like to point out the following: The legal advice I have given is based solely on the information provided by you. My response is only an initial legal assessment of the situation and cannot replace a comprehensive assessment. Adding or omitting relevant information can result in a completely different legal assessment.
I wish you a pleasant Saturday afternoon and a relaxing weekend!
Sincerely,
Dipl.-Jur. Danjel-Philippe Newerla, Attorney-at-Law
Heilsbergerstr. 16
27580 Bremerhaven
kanzlei.newerla@web.de
Tel. 0471/3088132
Fax.0471/57774
