The defendant no. 2 is an Italian company which broadcasts awards ceremonies in Italian in and outside Italy. This was permitted by the defendant no. 1. The plaintiff is the owner of the trademark ‘OSCAR’ and considers the broadcasting by the defendant no. 2 as an infringement of the trademark. The plaintiff brought an action for an injunction. The defendant denied the international jurisdiction of the German courts. The first instance court denied the international jurisdiction of German courts. The second instance affirmed it.
The Federal Court of Justice affirmed the international jurisdiction pursuant to Art. 5 no. 3 Brussels I stating that the place where the damage arose was Germany. The court raised the question whether it was necessary that the broadcast was targeted towards the internet users in Germany. The court came to the conclusion that in the present case it wasn’t necessary to find an answer to this question because the broadcast at least was among other countries also directed to Germany. The broadcasting purposed the promotion of the understanding of the Italian language and culture in the world. Therefore, it was also directed towards Germany.
The present case concerns the infringement of a trademark via the internet. In this regard the CJEU decided in Wintersteiger (C-523/10) that the courts in the country of protection of the trademark as well as the courts in the country where the provider is based had international jurisdiction. The CJEU judgment was made one month after the present decision. It though would have been necessary for the court of the present case to ask for a preliminary reference concerning the question if the specific content has to be targeted towards the country whose international jurisdiction should be justified.