Trade Buzzer warning case: Court ban on the use of "Geek Nerd"
Already the warning for the use of the terms "Geek Nerd" was unbelievable, but it gets even worse: A brief summary of what has happened so far: Trade Buzzer UG has sent us a warning letter for using the terms "Geek Nerd". We were told to stop using it and also to pay legal fees of over 1500 EUR. Some information about the warning letters: The managing director of Trade Buzzer UG is the chairman of an "Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property on the Internet (VSGE)", his company is also issuing warnings for other trademarks and his lawyer is apparently also quite active when it comes to warning letters (more information in our first blog post).
Court ruling: Ban on the use of "Geek Nerd"!
It's hard to believe, but Trade Buzzer UG actually managed to convince a judge and get a temporary injunction against us in court! For those who are interested: Berlin Chamber of Commerce Regional Court, case number 101 O 162/13. In concrete terms, this now means that we are prohibited from using the terms "geek nerd" with immediate effect on pain of a fine of EUR 250,000 (or alternatively imprisonment, to be carried out on me). As unbelievable as it sounds at first that a judge prohibits the use of German words: Once a temporary injunction has been issued, you have no choice but to follow it. So we changed all the places where we used the terms "geek" and "nerd" together. Among other things, we had to delete over 160 of our T-shirts from eBay! Since our first blog entry, several other affected companies have contacted us, including some smaller eBay retailers whose existence is threatened by the whole thing :( It's not just about the warnings for the term "Geek Nerd", but also about other, very questionable trademark entries such as "Sheldon Cooper". So we are not the only ones affected.
What can we do?
We could simply give in now, pay the EUR 1500 lawyer's fees from the first warning letter and an estimated EUR 1800 for the injunction and of course never use the terms "geek nerd" again. However, as we already announced in the first blog post, this is absolutely out of the question. We will continue to fight! We can't reveal any details about how we intend to proceed at the moment, but we will of course keep you up to date as soon as we have something to tell you. In total, there is probably a cost risk of EUR 20,000, so the whole thing won't be cheap. Even if we win, it is not certain that we will get the money back, as it is of course possible that Trade Buzzer UG will go bankrupt and then there would be nothing to recover. We can't repeat anything from the lawyer who issued the warning, as he is only acting as a lawyer and has nothing to do with Trade Buzzer UG (at least we can't say otherwise without proof). In our opinion, however, it is nevertheless important that we take action here, because after all, it is not only us who are affected, but also many small companies that cannot afford the warning costs of "only" EUR 1500. How can such a small company, which often consists of only one person, pay such high court costs? After all, we are somewhat larger and even if EUR 20,000 in damages would hurt us a lot, we wouldn't go bankrupt immediately. So solidarity demands that we keep fighting!
How can you help?
But we need your help: part of our plan is to find as many other affected people as possible so that we can take joint action against Trade Buzzer and their lawyer. To do this, however, we need as many people as possible to hear about our initiative. It would therefore be a great help if you could report on the case in your blog or on Twitter and Facebook. To all those affected: We have set up a Facebook group for networking and exchange, where all those affected can register. Click here to join the group. Please become a member, because together we have a better chance of winning!