Jägermeister
is defeated by
SELVA NEGRA.
Jägermeister
is defeated by
SELVA NEGRA.
from
In a David vs. Goliath case, the herbal liqueur giant Mast Jägermeister is defeated by the newcomer Selva Negra, which we represent, in a dispute over its logo. The Hamburg Regional Court ruled that Selva Negra does not infringe the trademark rights to Jägermeister’s deer head.
SELVA NEGRA vs. Jägermeister
Selva Negra is still a young company that offers the first agave spirit produced in Germany. The concept behind Selva Negra is to offer a premium product with references to the Black Forest and Mexico in its design. The visual reference to Mexico is an allusion to the home of tequila and mezcal, the best-known agave spirits, the best-known agave spirits.
SELVA NEGRA vs. Jägermeister
In addition to the large lettering “SELVA NEGRA” and other elements, the bottle features a frontal depiction of a hybrid creature with elements of a bull and a stag. The creature’s appearance is reminiscent of costumes and paintings for the “dia de los muertos”, the Mexican Day of the Dead, which has also become famous in this country thanks to films such as James Bond and Coco. In addition, the creature is wearing a Bollenhut from the Black Forest on its head, which is also reminiscent of the headdress worn by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Other pictorial elements are also reminiscent of the Black Forest and Mexico.
The frontal depiction of the animal now brought the competition onto the scene. Mast Jägermeister, manufacturer of the well-known herbal liqueur Jägermeister, saw the animal as an infringement of its trademark rights. For its part, Jägermeister has been using a frontal image of a stag with the Jägermeister logo underneath for many years. The stag has also been protected by Jägermeister as an isolated trademark in numerous variations.
Jägermeister now took action against the Selva Negra trademark because, in Jägermeister’s opinion, the depiction of the frontal animal head on the Selva Negra label infringed Jägermeister’s trademark rights to the stag’s head. The animal on the Selva Negra label is too similar to the Jägermeister stag and is associated with the stag and Jägermeister by the target public. In the specific case, Jägermeister based its claims on a German trademark with a black and white version of the round stag emblem.
Jägermeister asserts protection of well-known trademark
Jägermeister based its claims on the reputation of its trademark, among other things. The reputation was based, among other things, on the long period of use and a traffic report for an earlier version of the stag logo. Selva Negra’s sign took advantage of the distinctive character and reputation of Jägermeister’s stag’s head mark. There was also a likelihood of confusion. In addition, competition law claims were asserted for unfair imitation of Jägermeister’s bottle label.
In our opinion, however, the Selva Negra sign does not infringe the Jägermeister sign, as the overall impression of the sign is so clearly different from the Jägermeister sign that the relevant public will not associate the signs with each other. When looking at the Selva Negra bottle, no consumer would think that there is a connection with Jägermeister. The differences become even clearer if one compares the labels of the parties with each other, so that competition law claims are also ruled out.
In our opinion, there are also doubts as to whether Jägermeister’s use of the stag’s head mark preserves its rights, as Jägermeister only uses the stag’s head on its products in combination with the banner bearing the Jägermeister logo, but never on its own.
Hamburg Regional Court rules in favor of Selva Negra
The Hamburg Regional Court dismissed Jägermeister’s action with Urteil vom 03.03.2023 – Az. 315 O 274/21 has now been rejected. Although the Hamburg judges based their decision on the reputation of the Jägermeister sign in Germany, they correctly judged the signs to be dissimilar.
When comparing signs, the signs must be considered as a whole and compared with each other in terms of their overall impression. Due to the extended scope of protection of a trademark with a reputation, it is generally sufficient that the opposing signs are associated with each other. This requires that the contested sign is attributed to the owner of the earlier trademark due to a partial similarity in an essential core or a similarity in its meaning. On the other hand, it is not sufficient that a sign is merely capable of attracting attention by mere association with another commercial designation.
The LG Hamburg then comes to the conclusion that the public does not associate the Selva Negra trademark with the Jägermeister trademark to a relevant extent, as the signs are dissimilar.
The opposing trademarks are dissimilar in their overall relevant impression.
Thus, there was neither an even partial similarity in an essentially identical core nor a similarity in meaning. There was therefore no likelihood of confusion. The Hamburg judges also logically denied the competition law claims due to a lack of imitation.
Conclusion
Even if one can have sympathy for Jägermeister defending its own protected area for its own brand of stag’s head, Jägermeister’s actions in this case are excessive.
The signs are clearly recognizable in each component and their overall impression is so different that one cannot speak of an impairment of the stag’s head sign of Jägermeister.
We are pleased that the Hamburg District Court has made a clear and unambiguous statement here and that we were able to successfully defend our client. Whether and how the legal dispute will continue remains to be seen. Jägermeister has announced its intention to appeal.
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Update
The judgment has since been confirmed by the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg.
