passing off
noun · unlauterer Wettbewerb
There is no German passing off, the common-law tort has no single equivalent, so it is reconstructed, unlauterer Wettbewerb under the UWG for the misrepresentation and Verkehrsgeltung under the MarkenG for the unregistered sign. Herkunftstäuschung, § 4 Nr. 3 UWG, is the closest to the classic case of confusing customers about origin. A literal Ausgeben als is machine nonsense.
Which translation, when
Why
Passing off is a common-law tort, and German law has nothing that carries the whole of it, so it splits across two regimes and must be reconstructed rather than translated. The core of passing off, misrepresenting one trader’s goods or goodwill as another’s, lives in the UWG as unlauterer Wettbewerb, above all die Herkunftstäuschung, confusing the public about commercial origin through an imitation, § 4 Nr. 3 Buchst. a UWG, and die Rufausbeutung, trading on another’s reputation, § 4 Nr. 3 Buchst. b, with misleading conduct caught more broadly by § 5 UWG. The other half, the claimant’s unregistered sign, is protected where it has earned Verkehrsgeltung, market recognition through use, § 4 Nr. 2 MarkenG, so a name never put on the register can still be defended. What does not exist is a single tort called passing off with its own elements, and machine output, having no word to reach for, produces literal nonsense, Ausgeben als or Weitergeben, none of which a German lawyer would recognise. So passing off is unlauterer Wettbewerb plus Verkehrsgeltung, reconstructed by asking whether the complaint is about misleading the market or about defending an unregistered sign.
Typical mistakes
- There is no German tort of passing off, so it must be reconstructed as unlauterer Wettbewerb under the UWG, and a literal rendering like Ausgeben als names nothing a German lawyer would recognise.
- An unregistered sign is defended through Verkehrsgeltung, § 4 Nr. 2 MarkenG, not through a passing-off action, so the claimant’s route runs through market recognition, not a standalone tort.
- The UWG grounds are specific, Herkunftstäuschung and Rufausbeutung, § 4 Nr. 3 UWG, so passing off should be pinned to the actual competition-law wrong rather than left as a vague unfairness.
What matters
Brand-protection strategy meets a missing cause of action: without a registered Marke, a German claimant attacks an imitation as unlauterer Wettbewerb, Herkunftstäuschung under § 4 Nr. 3 UWG, and defends its own unregistered sign through Verkehrsgeltung, § 4 Nr. 2 MarkenG. The clause invoking a passing-off claim has named a tort German law does not provide.
What the machine misses
Passing off defeats machine output because there is no German term to reach for, so it comes back as a literal Ausgeben als or Weitergeben, phrases a German lawyer would not recognise as law. The tort has to be rebuilt from two regimes, unlauterer Wettbewerb under the UWG for the misrepresentation, § 4 Nr. 3 UWG, and Verkehrsgeltung under the MarkenG for an unregistered sign, § 4 Nr. 2, and a machine that renders passing off word for word hides that the claimant must plead a competition-law wrong or a mark earned through use, not a tort that does not exist.
Examples
| a passing-off claim | ein Anspruch aus unlauterem Wettbewerb |
| to pass off goods as another’s | eine Herkunftstäuschung begehen |
| unregistered goodwill | die Verkehrsgeltung eines Zeichens |
| misrepresentation as to origin | die Täuschung über die Herkunft |
More notes on these sections
trademark Marke