Trademark protection: Dispute on eagle in German Football Association’s logo

The German Football Association (Deutscher Fussballbund or DFB) and the supermarket chain Real had a dispute about one of Real’s sales campaigns on the occasion of the FIFA World Cup 2014. Real sold t-shirts and car floor mats which were printed with the sign of an eagle that was placed in the middle of up to three circles. Furthermore the sign on the t-shirts was combined with the lettering “Deutschland Deutschland Deutschland”, written in a circle around the eagle.

The DFB was of the opinion that the use of those signs infringed its German design mark and its Community trade mark, each showing an eagle in the centre with circles and the lettering “Deutscher Fußball Bund” around it.

In its judgement of 05 February 2015 (6 U 3249/15) the Higher Regional Court (OLG) of Munich only decided partly in favour of the DFB. Because there was no dispute about the identical nature of goods the Court focused on the question of similarity of the signs to determine if there was a danger of confusion. It is the overall impression of each sign that is decisive in this context. The Court took the view that the trademarks of the DFB are characterized not only by the eagle in the centre, but also by the lettering “Deutscher Fußball Bund” around it. The car floor mats did not have such or any lettering in the sign. Therefore the judges said that there is no similarity of the signs in question. However, a part of the sign printed on the t-shirts was the lettering as mentioned above. Hence, the Court held that the sign on the t-shirts and the logo of the DFB were similar and therefore caused a danger of confusion, especially also by taking in regard that the position of the eagle and the lettering printed in a circle around it was very much the same.