Das Verhältnis zwischen Marken- und Lauterkeitsrecht beim Schutz von Unternehmenskennzeichen

Company signs can be protected by trademark law and unfair competition law. However, can the two legal instruments be applied cumulatively? If the results obtained under the two laws conflict with each other, how can the conflict be resolved?

The German Federal Court of Justice has confirmed the principle of cumulative application in the Hard-Rock-Café judgement in 2013. However, in this case, the result under unfair competition law was aligned with that under trademark law. This approach seems doubtful.

This comparative study seeks to delimit the application domain of unfair competition law besides trademark law by protection of company signs and to find the appropriate approach by contradictory results.