After studying in Frankfurt and majoring in IP/IT/data protection law, Mr Christoph Matras worked for more than three years as a research assistant for a medium-sized commercial law firm in Frankfurt. Thereupon, Mr Matras decided to do his doctorate with Professor Thomas Hoeren on the topic of “trademark protection of real estate names”. Mr Matras has now submitted his dissertation and held a lecture on it on 17 May 2022.

As an introduction, Mr. Mantras clearly presented the basics and the legitimacy of trademark law with reference to the influence of Union law. He then went on to explain the problem of the protection of the real estate name under trade mark law. There are hardly any unresolved legal questions arising from § 3 (1) MarkenG and Art. 4 lit. a UMV, but the concept of goods is a particularity. The Federal Supreme Court assumes that only movable goods are to be subsumed under the term “goods”, which means that real estate falls into an area not covered by the Trade Mark Act. Whether this assumption is compatible with Union law is left to the ECJ.

Mr Matras explained the argumentation for and against this assumption and then presented possibilities of how real estate could otherwise be protected under trade mark law and considered these critically. In particular, he discussed alternatives under trade mark law, supplementary trade mark protection via the Unfair Competition Act or even a right of designation under copyright law. In the end, however, Mr Matras had to come to the conclusion that, although trade mark law is not a conclusive and comprehensive protective law, real estate in particular is not sufficiently protected under trade mark law. There was no justification for this lack of protection.

On the basis of this, Mr Matras then went on to take a closer look at the need for development as well as the possibilities for development of trademark law. Among other things, a claim arising from fundamental rights was discussed, economic arguments were put forward and the loss of competence under European law was pointed out. As possible solutions, Mr. Matras examined a “Real Estate Trademark Act”, a further development of the Nice Classification or the interpretation of Union law. The latter, the most promising approach, was examined in more detail; a decision by the ECJ in this regard remains to be seen. Finally, Mr Matras summarised his findings and answered questions from the participants – especially on the example of “One Forty West”.

We would like to thank Mr Matras for his fascinating lecture and the participants for their lively interest.

Click here for the video.

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On 19 April 2022, Ms Amelie Ebbinghaus, Client Manager & Provenance Researcher at the Art Loss Register in London, gave a one-hour Zoom lecture (available here) on the topic of “Due Diligence and Restitution in the Art Market”. She had accepted the invitation of the Art Law Clinic based at the ITM and led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoeren.

Ms Ebbinghaus introduced the Art Loss Register (ALR) in London. The private company was founded in 1991 and is the world’s largest database of lost and stolen works of art with approximately 700,000 registrations. The aim of the ALR is to protect the art market from problematic goods, to recover registered objects and to prevent theft and insurance fraud. The work of the ALR is explained in the course of the lecture through three different levels: registration, search and recovery.

At the registration level, losses are mainly recorded by victims of theft, insurance companies and law enforcement agencies, and all art collectors’ items can be registered, Ebbinghaus said.

This is followed by research, in which the ALR matches the object it has registered with the database for auction houses, museums and dealers, among others, and determines the background of loss circumstances and the work’s identity. In total, the research involves about 400,000 queries annually, as Ms Ebbinghaus informed the interested audience.

Ms Ebbinghaus then explained the procedures in case there is a match between the registered object and the database. The repatriation was explained on the one hand using the example of Nazi looted art and on the other hand using the example of a theft. The so-called Washington Principles of 1998, which provide for a “just and fair solution”, have a significant influence on the repatriation of Nazi looted art.

The lecture was rounded off with an exciting discussion and Q&A session. We would like to sincerely thank Ms Eb

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In this short episode of the ITM Podcast, research assistants Malin Fischer, Owen Mc Grath and Nicolas John talk about the planned Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework. The EU Commission and the US government have recently agreed on the basics of such a new data protection framework. With this framework, data transfers from EU countries to the USA should be possible in the future with legal certainty. The previous agreement, the EU-US Privacy Shield, was declared insufficient by the European Court of Justice in a ruling in 2020.

As I just learned from the university newspaper, a good friend of the ITM, Dr Markus Bertling, passed away on 13 February. Mr Bertling, born in 1959, was the director of the Palaeontological Museum of the WWU. I am connected with Markus by many years of cooperation in the Senate Committee for Art and Culture of the WWU and a personal friendship that developed as a result. I will greatly miss him, his mischievous humour, his enthusiasm for art, his willingness to experiment. Thomas Hoeren

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