In a ruling dated February 27, 2017, the Regional Court of Berlin (Ref.: 3 O 19/15) decided that the state of Berlin must accept the commercial use of Berlin.com.
There is no right to injunctive relief against the internationally active media group.
At least to the extent that the media group indicated on the website that it was not an official website of the state of Berlin.
State of Berlin takes action against use of Berlin.com
In its action before the Berlin Regional Court, the state of Berlin sought both information about the revenue and profits generated from the use of the Berlin.com domain and injunctive relief.
Berlin.com has been operated by a global media group since 2011.
The site provides visitors with all kinds of information about the city of Berlin, as well as hotels, restaurants, excursion destinations, jobs and events.
Clarifying disclaimer when visiting Berlin.com
When a user accesses the Berlin.com website, a disclaimer first appears stating that the site is not an official website of the state of Berlin:
Berlin.com is operated by Berlin experts and is not a website of the State of Berlin.
However, the regional court has now dismissed the state’s claim.
The media group had not usurped the name of the state without authorization.
Even if the name of a regional authority enjoyed legal protection, the Regional Court questioned the extent to which the media group was using this name unlawfully.
The media group merely mentioned the name without impairing the function of the name.
The disclaimer made it clear to all users of the Berlin.com website that it was not an official website of the state of Berlin.
Second-level domain gives no information about the operator of the website
At the same time, the court emphasizes that, in contrast to the two thousand years, it is no longer possible to deduce the operator of the website from the name of the second-level domain.
The reason for this is that there is now an enormous number of websites – which provide information on almost all areas of life in a commercial manner.
According to the Berlin Regional Court, there are a large number of domain names that are known.
Which, however, definitely do not directly indicate their operator.
For example, the website “Tagesschau.de” is not operated by Tagesschau itself, but by NDR or ARD.
Likewise, when visiting the site “chefkoch.de”, the Internet user does not expect that the site is actually operated by a chef.
Rather, they only expect information about cooking.
The ruling shows – as other rulings have already done – that domain names are very important in the commercial sector.
It is extremely important for companies to use a short and particularly memorable second-level domain.