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German Federal Court of Justice Confirms Copyright in Photographs of Public Domain Paintings

By Benjamin Beck & Konstantin von Werder
March 21, 2019
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On 20 December 2018, the German Federal Court of Justice confirmed that photographs of public domain paintings ‎are, in principle, protected by a copyright-related right in section 72 of the German Copyright Act (Case No. I ZR 104/17). The case involved a request to take down several pictures hosted on Wikimedia Commons—an online database of works distributed under Creative Commons licenses—as public domain images. All pictures featured art on display at the Reiss Engelhorn Museum in Mannheim, Germany.

Wikimedia Germany responded to the judgment by saying that the country’s cultural heritage no longer belonged to the public and demanded that the German legislature change the law.

Facts of the Case

In late 2015, the museum filed a lawsuit in the Regional Court of Stuttgart against a longtime Wikipedia contributor. The suit concerned copyright claims related to 17 photographs of art on display at the museum. The photographs were commissioned by the museum in 1992, and scans of those photographs (taken from museum publications) were later uploaded by the respondent to Wikimedia Commons. The works of art in the photographs at issue are all in the public domain. For example, a famous portrait of composer Richard Wagner was painted in 1862. Thus, its copyright term ran out long ago.

On 3 August 2016, the Regional Court of Stuttgart found that the photographs in question were protected by a copyright-related right and ordered the respondent to desist from making the pictures available to the public. The first and second appellate courts, the Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart and the German Federal Court of Justice, respectively, in large part affirmed the ruling of the Regional Court of Stuttgart.

Key Legal Considerations

In Germany, the protection granted to photographs is not limited to copyright (“photographic works,” section 2, para. 1, No. 5 of the German Copyright Act). Photographs can also be protected under a so-called copyright-related right in section 72 of the German Copyright Act that requires no creativity on the photographer’s part but a minimum level of “personal intellectual effort.” But the scope of protection conferred is essentially equivalent to copyright, albeit with a shorter term.

The protection under section 72 of the German Copyright Act does not apply to mere scans and other simple photomechanical reproductions. The German Federal Court of Justice found that the photographs in question in this case are protected by section 72 because faithfully reproducing works of art requires difficult technical preconditions such as, inter alia, light, distance, angle and focus, and, therefore, these photographs qualified as “personal intellectual effort.”

 

This article was originally published on AllAboutIP – Mayer Brown’s blog on relevant developments in the fields of intellectual property and unfair competition law.

Photo of Benjamin Beck Benjamin Beck

Benjamin Beck is an associate in Mayer Brown’s Düsseldorf office and a member of the Intellectual Property practice.

Publications

Post GDPR Enforcement in Germany — A Sneak Peek, in: Privacy & Data Protection Journal (PDP), 2019, No. 5, p. 16-17, with Dr. Ulrich…

Benjamin Beck is an associate in Mayer Brown’s Düsseldorf office and a member of the Intellectual Property practice.

Publications

Post GDPR Enforcement in Germany — A Sneak Peek, in: Privacy & Data Protection Journal (PDP), 2019, No. 5, p. 16-17, with Dr. Ulrich Worm

Annotation to Higher Regional Court of Berlin (Kammergericht Berlin), Germany, Judgment of 25 September 2018 — (4) 161 Ss 28/18 (35/18), in: Europäische Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht (EuZW), 2019, No. 1, p. 42-46, with Dr. Dominik König

Die Wirksamkeit von sog. „Nicht-Einsatz-Klauseln“ für den Wettbewerb der Fußball-Bundesliga, in: Zeitschrift für Sport und Recht (SpuRt), 2019, No. 1, p. 2-6, with Patrick Schulz

Bitcoin and Money, in: Leslie Thompson, Jean-Toussaint Pindi, Stephanie Amar-Flood (ed.), Anglais appliqué: Economie, Gestion, Droit, AES, 4th ed. 2018, p. 44-45

GDPR Implications for Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies, in: SA Financial Regulation Journal, 19.06.2018, with Dr. Ulrich Worm

Yoga and Copyright, in: WIPO Magazine, 2017, No. 3, p. 44-45, with Konstantin von Werder

Annotation to Administrative Court of Frankfurt am Main (Verwaltungsgericht Frankfurt), Germany, Judgment of 31 October 2016 — 1 K 2903/15.F, in: Kommunikation & Recht (K&R), 2017, No. 2, p. 142-144, with Dr. Dominik König

IP scenarios in a Brexit world, in: World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR), 18.07.2016, with Dr. Ulrich Worm

Судебная практика в Германии / Court practice in Germany, in: Интеллектуальная собственность Казахстана (Intellectual property of Kazakhstan), 2016, No. 1, p. 13-16, with Ana Elisa Bruder and Konstantin von Werder

Oktoberfest for the UPC?, in: World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR), 24.03.2016, with Dr. Ulrich Worm

Die immaterialgüterrechtliche Schutzfähigkeit von „Affen-Selfies“, in: Zeitschrift für Urheber- und Medienrecht (ZUM), Vol. 60 (2016), No. 1, p. 34-38, with Dominik König

Bitcoins als Gegenstand von sekundären Leistungspflichten. Erfassung dem Grunde und der Höhe nach, in: Archiv für die civilistische Praxis (AcP), Vol. 215 (2015), No. 5, p. 655-682, with Dominik König

Annotation to CJEU, Judgment of 22 October 2015 — C‑264/14 — David Hedqvist, in: Umsatzsteuer-Rundschau (UR), 2015, No. 22, p. 864-871, with Dominik König

Court considers likelihood of confusion between word marks using same letters in different order, in: World Trademark Review Daily, 25.09.2015, with Konstantin von Werder

Do Bitcoins Fulfil the Classic Economic Functions of Money? An Analysis and its Legal Implications, published online on lichter-filmfest.de on 09.03.2015

Bitcoins als Geld im Rechtssinne, in: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift (NJW), Vol. 68 (2015), No. 9, p. 580-586

Bitcoin: Der Versuch einer vertragstypologischen Einordnung von kryptographischem Geld, in: JuristenZeitung (JZ), Vol. 70 (2015), No. 3, p. 130-138, with Dominik König

Klinische und rechtliche Aspekte einer Abstinenzkontrolle unter besonderer Berücksichtigung kontinuierlicher transdermaler Alkoholmessung, in: Blutalkohol – Alcohol, Drugs and Behavior (BA), Vol. 50 (2013), No. 4, p. 153-167

Elektronische Fußfessel – Fluch oder Segen der Kriminalpolitik?, in: Schriftenreihe der Stiftung der Hessischen Rechtsanwaltschaft, Vol. 2 (2011), p. 65-94

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Photo of Konstantin von Werder Konstantin von Werder

Konstantin von Werder is a counsel in the Intellectual Property practice of Mayer Brown´s Frankfurt office. He focuses on trademark and unfair competition law (UWG). He has extensive experience and expertise as a litigator and advises clients in legal disputes (warning letters, preliminary…

Konstantin von Werder is a counsel in the Intellectual Property practice of Mayer Brown´s Frankfurt office. He focuses on trademark and unfair competition law (UWG). He has extensive experience and expertise as a litigator and advises clients in legal disputes (warning letters, preliminary injunctions, actions on the merits). Konstantin also coordinates the infringement proceedings for his clients abroad. Furthermore, he advises national and international clients on patent, design and copyright law. Moreover, he has particular expertise and experience in drafting complex license and distribution agreements and in providing advice on research and development agreements. His clients include companies in the pharmaceuticals and automotive industry as well as in the hotel, catering and consumer goods sector.

Konstantin’s full bio.

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  • Posted in:
    Intellectual Property
  • Blog:
    All About IP
  • Organization:
    Mayer Brown
  • Article: View Original Source

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