trademark
noun · Marke
Marke for a trademark under the MarkenG, but machine output reaches for Warenzeichen, the term German law dropped in 1995, and a modern German lawyer reads it as a generation out of date. A Marke need not even be registered, § 4 MarkenG protects it through registration, through Verkehrsgeltung, or through notoriety. Handelsmarke, a retailer’s own brand, is the wrong sense entirely.
Which translation, when
Why
A trademark is die Marke, and the first trap is a word German law itself retired. The MarkenG of 1995 replaced Warenzeichen with Marke, so a translation that reaches for Warenzeichen sounds a generation out of date to a German lawyer, and machine output does exactly that. The second point is that a Marke need not be registered at all, § 4 MarkenG grants trademark protection three ways, by registration at the DPMA, § 4 Nr. 1, by Verkehrsgeltung, market recognition acquired through use, § 4 Nr. 2, and by notoriety in the Paris Convention sense, § 4 Nr. 3, so a well-known but unregistered sign is already a Marke. Around it sit rights the English word does not reach, die geschäftliche Bezeichnung, § 5 MarkenG, covering Unternehmenskennzeichen and work titles, and die Firma, the registered company name under the HGB, a different regime again. So trademark is Marke, and the errors are the dated Warenzeichen, the retail-brand Handelsmarke, and the collapse of Marke into the company’s Firma.
Typical mistakes
- Warenzeichen is the term the MarkenG replaced in 1995, so rendering trademark as Warenzeichen dates the text and signals it was never checked against current law.
- A Marke can arise without registration, through Verkehrsgeltung, § 4 Nr. 2 MarkenG, so treating a trademark as necessarily registered misses the use-based and notoriety routes.
- Handelsmarke is a retailer’s own-label brand and die Firma is the company name, so neither is the trademark, and the Marke must not collapse into either.
What matters
Brand and licensing clauses turn on the current word: a trademark is eine Marke under the MarkenG, protected by registration or by Verkehrsgeltung, § 4 MarkenG, not the retired Warenzeichen. The clause calling the sign a Warenzeichen has dated the whole agreement, and one treating the mark as necessarily registered may miss a use-based Marke that never went on the register.
What the machine misses
Trademark comes back as Warenzeichen in machine output more often than it should, and that is the term the MarkenG dropped in 1995, so the German reader dates the text at once, the current word is die Marke. The machine also flattens the ways a Marke arises, § 4 MarkenG protects it by registration, by Verkehrsgeltung and by notoriety, so a use-based Marke that never went on the register disappears behind an assumption of registration, and at worst trademark slides into Handelsmarke, a retailer own brand.
Examples
| a registered trademark | eine eingetragene Marke |
| trademark infringement | die Markenverletzung |
| to register a trademark | eine Marke anmelden |
| an unregistered trademark | eine Marke kraft Verkehrsgeltung |
More notes on these sections
infringement Schutzrechtsverletzung
passing off unlauterer Wettbewerb