“wetter.de”Decision of the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof) 28 January 2016 – Case No. I ZR 202/14

Works capable of title protection within the meaning of Sec. 5(3) of the Trade Mark Act can also be apps for mobile devices and the provision of information on the Internet.The name “wetter.de” does not have sufficient inherent distinctive character for work title protection pursuant to Sec. 5(1) and (3) of the Trade Mark Act for an app and an Internet site on which localised weather data and other information on the topic of the weather is available for access.The low requirements made of the distinctive character of the titles of newspapers and periodicals according to the judicial practice of the Federal Supreme Court cannot be applied to apps for mobile devices and Internet sites that are not also available as print versions, because (as yet) the public is not accustomed to the use of generic terms in these sectors.