[Diritto] Fwd: Obelix ./. MobiliX: Court says Mobilix too close to Obelix

[Alessandro Rubini]

> From: Werner Heuser <Werner.Heuser@web.de>
> To: FSF <discussion@fsfeurope.org>
> Subject: Obelix ./. MobiliX: Court says Mobilix too close to Obelix
> Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 16:20:36 -0100

> MobiliX: Court says Mobilix too close to Obelix
> 
> Yesterday, the "Oberlandesgericht" (highest court of
> the Bavarian state) has affirmed that the brands
> "MobiliX" and Obelix" can indeed be mixed up.  The
> onomatopoetic similarities are big enough that a
> "normal user" could immediately be thinking of
> "Obelix" when hearing the word "MobiliX".  Whether
> this a fact for IT people, too, though, was not
> answered by the court.  But whether the defendant
> may keep the name of his company (not the brand)
> depends hightly on the answer to this question.
> The court has not given a final statement whether there
> will be claims on information or indemnifications yet.
> The sentence is expected on December, 19th.  An exact
> analysis will be possible after the basis for the
> decisions are at hand.
> Whether the ruling of the OLG Munich will be permanent, is
> an open question.  Lawyers to Mr Werner Heuser, Jaschinski
> Biere Brexl - JBB (http://jbb.de), are investigating
> possibilities to appeal.  At the time it is yet unclear
> whether the OLG will allow the appeal.
> 
> In autumn 2001, the owners of the brand Obelix, Les
> Edition Albert Rene, have sued Mr Werner Heuser.  He is
> the author of the wellknown website "MobiliX".  On this
> site you can find information about Unix systems on
> mobile computers.  And that is why Mr Heuser had chosen
> a company and domain name which show these items of the
> branch by use of both "mobile" and "ix".  Therefore he
> also registered the brand "MobiliX" for the branches
> software, hardware, and telecommunication.
> 
> In the plaintiff's view he was using the onomatopoetic
> resemblance to the famous brand of "Obelix" to make
> use this famousness.  This argumentation, however, was
> rejected by the court (OLG Munich) as there is no
> famous brand named "Obelix" - in contrast to the
> character "Obelix" in the strip cartoon.  However, the
> court of appeal did see a possible mixup - other than
> the court of district.
> 
> The documentation of the case is available online 
> (http://mobilix.org/mobilix_asterix.html).