The German Federal Patent Court and the changing principles of morality

Some surprising news - well, to this prudish Kat anyway - come from the German Federal Patent Court (Bundespatentgericht) which has decided that the trade mark "F*CKEN" (register entry shown to the left in prudishly small print) can be registered for beverages. The German word is similar to the English word so that I do not believe anyone will need a translation. The German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) had initially (and in this Kat's view rather not surprisingly) refused registration of the mark as being contrary to public policy or to accepted principles of morality.

On appeal, the Federal Patent Court was a lot more open-minded, shall we say. The judges held that due to the increasing liberalisation of the general public's views on conventions and principles of morality the mark "F*CKEN" did not affect the general public's moral sensitivities in a completely intolerable way - with the general public being the relevant consumers of beverages in this case. The judges would however draw a line and not accept trade marks for registration that were more than of mere bad taste but which contained an additional sexual meaning that was massively discriminatory. For example: gender specifically discriminatory and/or marks which affect human dignity or which could at least seriously be interpreted as having such a meaning

The word "F*CKEN" however was gender-neutral, the judges held, and as such not one-sidedly discriminatory. Furthermore, the word was widely used in everyday language and was no longer sexually provocative even though the word "F*CKEN" was part of "vulgar language" and not word of "good taste". Diligently conducting further research, the court also found 67 phonebook entries for name "F*cken" within Germany and stressed that the word could be found in dictionaries. In addition, the word "F*CKEN" was used in critically acclaimed film titles, TV programmes and book titles, such as "Shoppen & F*cken" and "F*ckende Fische" (see left). The judges also pointed out that the word was included in the title of a theatre play ("Mesalliance aber wir f*cken uns prächtig", in English: "Mesalliance but we are f*cking happily") written by the critically acclaimed author Werner Schwab and this play had been shown on German theatre stages. In light of this the DPMA's refusal had to be reversed.

A rather progressive court that clearly did all the background research… Merpel rather enjoyed reading the decision and will now do some research of her own, she is in particular interested in "F*ckende Fische", age restriction 12 years. She wonders for how long the DPMA's trade mark register will retain the same age restriction.

Case reference: 26 W (pat) 116/10 of 3 August 2011.

To read this decision in its entirety, please click here.
The German Federal Patent Court and the changing principles of morality The German Federal Patent Court and the changing principles of morality Reviewed by Birgit Clark on Thursday, September 15, 2011 Rating: 5

8 comments:

  1. George Carlin would be proud. Makes our TINY PENIS seem..erm.. small minded

    ReplyDelete
  2. Outrageous. Two words: "slippery slope".

    ReplyDelete
  3. Several years ago, a German Court prohibited the use of the words "Bums mal wieder" in association with BMW. What would be the view of a 21st century German Court?

    ReplyDelete
  4. A little surprising that someone thought this worth pursuing, an acceptable public use apparently having already been established. There is a well-known luxury coach company in Germany which, to the delight of my children, proudly displays its name on its vehicles - F*cker. Insert (in)appropriate vowel.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I find this name odd too. I have a photo of two small bottles with that name on my weblog - it's the sixth photo down, headed 'A new flavour?'
    http://www.transblawg.eu/index.php?/archives/3875-Local-picturesFotos-von-Fuerth.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. The IPO refused F*CK ME but has allowed GIVE A SH*T in Class 16 for various goods including toilet paper it has also allowed the mark with the asterisk replaced by an "I". OHIM has registered F*CKED UP in Classes 18, 25 and 43

    ReplyDelete
  7. Reminds me of the occasion when the famous Antarctic explorer was about to give a talk in Yorkshire.

    The Chairman announced his guest, in a very thick Yorkshire accent, but pronouncing Sir Vivian's family name with a very short "u" in it.

    Sir Vivian leaned across and whispered "Actually, it's pronounced "fewks".

    Yes, Ah know lad" whispered back the chairman, "but Ah couldn't possibly say that out loud. There's ladies present". (Yorkshire readers sorry; please do not be offended by my incompetent rendering of a Yorkshire accent)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Musing here: A German professor of economics just published his findings, that Germans are happy, especially in Hamburg. The key to happiness, he says, are the 4 G's.

    The G's are: Gesundheit, Geld, Gesellschaft and Genen. As to the fourth of those, apparently, you benefit from a "glass half full" instinct, as to the third, from a society in which people help each other. Incidentally, the German Grundgesetz (basic law) includes a declaratory provision that it is the duty of everybody to help his fellow man.

    How about in the UK?

    ReplyDelete

All comments must be moderated by a member of the IPKat team before they appear on the blog. Comments will not be allowed if the contravene the IPKat policy that readers' comments should not be obscene or defamatory; they should not consist of ad hominem attacks on members of the blog team or other comment-posters and they should make a constructive contribution to the discussion of the post on which they purport to comment.

It is also the IPKat policy that comments should not be made completely anonymously, and users should use a consistent name or pseudonym (which should not itself be defamatory or obscene, or that of another real person), either in the "identity" field, or at the beginning of the comment. Current practice is to, however, allow a limited number of comments that contravene this policy, provided that the comment has a high degree of relevance and the comment chain does not become too difficult to follow.

Learn more here: http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/p/want-to-complain.html

Powered by Blogger.