{"id":2898,"date":"2020-07-06T08:29:30","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T06:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/all\/maiwald-blog\/may-the-use-of-the-term-webinar-constitute-a-trademark-infringement\/"},"modified":"2021-10-06T19:09:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T17:09:03","slug":"may-the-use-of-the-term-webinar-constitute-a-trademark-infringement-1","status":"publish","type":"maiwald-blog","link":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/en\/maiwald-blog\/may-the-use-of-the-term-webinar-constitute-a-trademark-infringement-1\/","title":{"rendered":"May the use of the term \u201cWebinar\u201d constitute a trademark infringement?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Since a few days rumors about a wave of warning letters alleging infringement of the trademark &#8220;Webinar&#8221; have been circulating on the net. If you are also using the term \u201ewebinar\u201c, how concernd&nbsp;should you be?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The term &#8220;webinar&#8221; is actually protected as a trademark. The oldest \u201eWebinar\u201c trademark in Germany was registered in 2003 for, among other things, &#8220;organisation and holding of seminars; organisation and holding of conferences&#8221;. Does that mean everybody using the term &#8220;webinar&#8221; in connection with the organisation of an online seminar is committing a trademark infringement?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We think, not necessarily. Because even if the use of a registered trademark for the protected products without the consent of the trademark owner will generally constitute a trademark infringement, this is not necessarily the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Use as a trademark<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first requirement for a trademark infringement is that the alleged infringer uses the sign in question as a trademark. Consumers must believe that the sign is intended to indicate that this service originates from a specific company. Even though this may not have been the case in 2003, we believe that, at least today, consumers do not understand &#8220;webinar&#8221; to be a reference to a specific provider, but only the very general term used for an online seminar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Genuine use<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A further requirement would be that the owner of the trademark must be able to prove that he or a licensee has used the trademark within the last 5 years. At first sight, there seems to be no such evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Validity of the trademark<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, the trade mark should be legally valid. There are doubts about this, because the trademark has probably become the commonly used term for online seminars. Not surprisingly, a request for cancellation of this trademark was filed with the German Patent and Trademark Office on 3 July 2020. It remains to be seen how this request will be decided and what will happen to other trademarks containing the element &#8220;webinar&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Abuse of rights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, there would be the argument of abuse of rights if the term &#8220;webinar&#8221; has been used throughout the country for years without any objection being raised by the respective trademark owner, but now all of a sudden a lot of warning letters were sent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you do indeed receive a warning letter, there are probably some arguments against the same being enforceable in court.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>This article only reflects our opinion and does not replace legal advice in individual cases! <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2898","maiwald-blog","type-maiwald-blog","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/maiwald-blog\/2898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/maiwald-blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/maiwald-blog"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/maiwald-blog\/2898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9724,"href":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/maiwald-blog\/2898\/revisions\/9724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maiwald.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}