Blacklist: The list of brand warnings

We have been advising on trademark law for many years now. Advice on trademark warnings plays a particularly important role here. We have collected the trademarks that have been warned of in recent years and summarized them in a so-called blacklist – this has now grown to over 200 brands. This list should give a good overview of the “critical” trademark terms. We continue to update the list and offer it exclusively to our clients as a contribution to avoiding trademark warnings.

Even if the list of brands warned seems almost endless and is constantly growing, the reasons that can lead to a trademark warning are definitely finite. Below we have listed the 10 most common reasons for warnings.

I. 10 most common reasons for warnings in trademark law

1. Plagiarism trap: Only use protected trademarks to advertise original goods/licensed goods and always check in advance whether they are actually original goods.

2. Brand comparison: Do not use protected trademarks to refer to comparable goods/services in your offers.

3. Brand naming: In particular, do not use protected trademarks in the online shop as a category or subcategory or in an overview of traded branded goods, unless you actually offer the original goods from the brand manufacturer on a regular basis.

4. Common terms: Do not use signs that may be considered common and descriptive of a particular product by those skilled in the art, but are still protected under trademark law.

5. Parallelimport: In the case of original goods, check the source of origin of the goods yourself – if this is outside the EU, parallel imports can lead to trademark infringement despite the originality of the goods.

6. Spare part: If you want to point out the intended use of a no-name spare part for branded goods (e.g. printer, vacuum cleaner, etc.), only mention the brand name if absolutely necessary for use and make it clear that it is not an original spare part and for which original device it can be used (“suitable for” etc.).

7. Amazon: – a classic: Avoid clinging to Amazon offers if the original article is protected by trademark law, this can be inferred from the offer and you are only offering a (albeit identical) no-name article.

8. Adwords: The booking of protected characters as keywords in google adwords is now generally permitted from a trademark perspective. But: Always avoid using protected trademarks in the ad text – in other words: the ad must not give the impression that it comes from the brand owner. Pay particular attention to this when using well-known symbols (if necessary, a lack of economic connection should be pointed out separately).

9. Metatags: Avoid using protected characters as meta tags in your shop page unless you offer original goods or otherwise maintain ongoing business relationships with the character owner and the meta tags are primarily intended to affect search engine results.

10. Sport: When using terms from major sporting events (such as the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics), please note that these are also protected trademarks and may only be used with the permission of the rights holder.

II. Over 200 brand names currently being warned: Our brand blacklist

In our brand consulting practice over the last few years, we have, among other things, the following terms in terms of trademark warnings, sometimes of course several times, are used – this list is not final:

A notice: The list is constantly being developed and should of course lead to the avoidance of brand warnings in the long term. We are also happy to fall back on the support of our clients – if you have been warned yourself in trademark law, you are welcome to send your warning to us for the aforementioned purpose: [email protected]

Tipp: Do you have any questions about the contribution? Feel free to discuss this with us in the
Entrepreneur group of the IT law firm on Facebook.

Author:

Felix Barth

Lawyer and specialist lawyer for commercial legal protection / partner management