IT Law

In the two-day event “IT Law – organise and manage contents, communication and business legally steady on the Internet” within the lecture series “JuraBasics – Law for non-lawyers” of the University of Augsburg, certified lawyer Hagen Hild will impart practise-oriented knowledge. Lawyer Hild is a certified lawyer in IT-Law and in Protection of Industrial Property and daily advises clients in this area for almost 10 years. The event will take place on Friday 16/07 and Saturday 17/07 from 9 am to 5:30 pm.

The German Ordinance on the duty to inform of the service companies (DL-InfoV) came into force on May 17, 2010. DL-InfoV applies for all service companies and IT-freelancers and involves numerous new duties to inform. You may read the article written by certified lawyer Hagen Hild about this topic for the “IT Freelancer Magazin” on the February / March edition.

The computer magazine CHIP recently published our large terms and conditions test, in which lawyer Hagen Hild (Terms and Conditions Law) and lawyer Martin Bachmann (Privacy Policy) examined dozens of terms of use, licence agreements and privacy policies of the major providers such as Microsoft, Google and Facebook. This study has now been mentioned in the FOCUS magazine.

Important Terms and Conditions Check and interview with lawyer Hild in the CHIP September 2010 edition

“Im AGB-Dschungel” (“In the jungle of Terms and Conditions”) is the title of the wide terms and conditions check of CHIP. The law firm Hild & Colleagues has checked, for the well-known computer magazine CHIP, hundreds of pages containing terms and conditions, terms of use, licence agreements and privacy policies in the field of Internet and IT. The law firm has also legally tested numerous clauses for CHIP. For this purpose, certified lawyer Hagen Hild (certified lawyer in IT-Law and certified lawyer in Protection of Industrial Property) has analysed...

Judgement of OLG Hamm (Higher Regional Court Hamm) of 30/03/2010, file number: 4 U 212/09

Enterprisers may exclude efficiently the withdrawal right of the consumer within sales of software in distant selling regarding the unsealing of the delivered data carriers by the consumer. However, the merely opening of the cellophane wrap constitutes no unsealing, from the point of view of the Higher Regional Court Hamm, since the film has no seal-typical test and reflection functions. The cellophane film can rather serve other purposes, as for example, as soil protection.

Press release of AG München (Local Court Munich) about the judgement of 09/07/2009, file number: 161 C 6412/09

An enterprise that sends advertising emails to the e-mail address of a medical practice without consent infringes against the rights of the addressee and his protected business interest. The dispatch of such advertising mails creates an unacceptable annoyance for the receiver, who can demand an omission. The importunity is caused by the fact that the receiver must invest time and effort in sorting the unrequested e-mails.

Judgement of LG Düsseldorf (Regional Court Dusseldorf) of 22/04/2009, file number: 12 O 23/09

In a lawsuit about delusive statements of used licences, the judges of the Regional Court Dusseldorf decided once again against the interest of the software giant SAP. The software manufacturer offered beside the new products also used software for reduced prices. However, at the same time, he warned by the purchase about a possible legal risk of the used product. Nevertheless, this statement is wrong and delusive, so that the Regional Court granted an injunction against SAP.

Judgement of LG Köln (Regional Court Cologne) of 13/05/2009, file number: 28 O 889/08

Those who make available an Internet access in own household and therefore make possible the participation in music file sharing networks, have the obligation to check and perform if needed. According to the court, to prohibit the children expressly and specifically to download music, it is not enough. As effective action, they would have had to set up the computer with limited rights as well as a Firewall, which prevent the download of data from the computer.

Decision of OLG Stuttgart (HRC Stuttgart) of 21/04/2009, file number: 8 W 155/08

For registrations in the trade register, an obligatory electronic submission is prescribed in publicly accredited form. In addition a certified electronic signature must be used for an effective submission. If an authority displays electronic documents within his competence, the regulations about public documents should be applied. The used certificate allows determination about who has created the public electronic document.

Judgement of VG Göttingen (Administrative Court Goettingen) of 12/05/2009, file number: 5 A 4/07

If a professor stores and loads images and video files with child-pornographic content on his official PC, this shows such a serious disciplinary offence that it leads to the removal from the office. The access to such files by a professor leads, from the point of view of an impartial and considerate third, to a final and entire loss of the respect as a teacher and model.

Judgement of LG Köln (Regional Court Cologne) of 16/06/2009, file number: 33 O 374/08

With an amount in dispute of 1 million euro, the regional court Cologne found StudiVZ "innocent". Facebook accused it of the imitation of the so-called "Look & Feel" on its homepage. StudiVZ served Facebook though as a model. Nevertheless and with limitations, the principle of the imitation freedom is valid, as long as this is not unfairly used. Finally Facebook, at the market launch of StudiVZ, did not have the necessary name recognition in Germany to justify any claim. Nor General Terms and Conditions offense is either given, since StudiVZ never...

Press release No. 137/09 of BGH (Federal Supreme Court) about the judgement of 23/06/2009, file number: VI ZR 196/08

The Federal Court of Justice has decided in a current judgement that teacher assessments are allowed on the Internet on the web page spickmich.de. The assessments show opinions which concern the professional activity of a teacher and therefore basically without the same protection as she could have on her private sphere. Also the fact that the assessments are handed in anonymously, nothing changes in the admissibility, since the freedom of opinion encloses basically the right to determine the spreading medium.

Judgement of LG Bonn (Regional Court Bonn) of 08/05/2009, file number: 10 O 395/08

In the conclusion of a mobile contract, the customer shall make clear his interest in different rate models for Internet use on the mobile phone. In case of excessive use and thereby high expenses, he cannot appeal to wrong consultation and refuse the payments. The mobile phone provider does not have any duty to inform about the price models and option in which the customer has not shown any recognizable interest during the contract conclusion.

Judgement of BGH (Federal Supreme Court) of 19/02/2009, file number: I ZR 135/06

We had already reported about the press release 39/2009 to the judgement, now the full text is given.

The registration of a domain name can fulfil only by presentation of special circumstances the facts of an unfair competitor's impediment and justify a claim to delete the domain name.
Such circumstances are not already given if the domain owner registers a huge number of domain names to offer them to potential prospective customers; to the purchase or to the payable use, and one of these domain names...

Judgement of LG Hamburg (Regional Court Hamburg) of 21/11/2008, file number: 310 S 1/08

The invoicing enterprise, due to wrong solicitor information, must not pay the costs of any lawyer's fees for the counter warning letter of the erroneous opposing party, as long as it does not represent any takeover negligence. Particularly, the defendant enterprise may trust the solicitor advice. Because of an erroneous mistake of the IP address by the Internet provider, the plaintiff was accused to offer predominantly music files on the Internet without approval of the right holders.

Judgement of BAG (Labour Court) of 20/01/2009, file number: 1 AZR 515/08

A rate-responsible trade union is allowed to send advertisement and information to employees to their official e-mail address, even if the employer has prohibited its private use.