Marc Babej gives us a glimpse into a fun kerfuffle in Germany between someone who appears to be Heidi Klum’s father and an ad blogger who dared use his Liebchen’s name. Herr Klum is trying to argue that her name is registered and trademarked and shouldn’t be used without payment. The story is bubbling up to the German press already.
: And here is a translation of the ad blogger Patrick Breitenbach’s report [via Thomas Kneuwer of Handelsblatt]. The original letter from Herr Klum:
Hello,
The name “Heidi Klum†is protected by law ® and TM. I’m asking you to delete the name from your URL and desist from using the name “Heidi Klum†for advertising purposes. I have set January 2nd 2006 as a deadline for compliance.
Thank you for understanding my point of view.
Sincerely
Guenther Klum
www.heidiklum.com
Another story in Germany:
Blogger Threatened to be Sued by Sozialgericht Bremen for Appearing in Google
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-01-03-n56.html
[...] Auch Jeff Jarviz Buzz Machine berichtet darüber unter und der Übersetzter des Beitrages berichtet: The beauty and the blog… [...]
What is “an ad blogger?”
…someone who blogs about advertising
What a bumbler the father is. It appears the guy only mentioned Klum in a link to a story; ie, referred to her by name in a blog post. I know a bit about this arena because I’ve trademarked my name, The Advice Goddess, and use it in trade (as a columnist, in paid TV appearances, and other venues). If somebody else tries to appropriate this name or something very close to it as their own, my trademark lawyer can rightfully pursue them for it — especially if they make money on it. Anybody, however, is free to write a blog post noting that “The Advice Goddess” is a total idiot — or, preferably, “The Advice Goddess” is a great genius, and a ravishing beauty, with very white teeth…and there’s not a thing I can do about it legally — providing their remarks are either their opinion or can be proven to be facts.
Jeff, fantastic that this issue finds its way to US-blogs that fast. That’s a real presentation of the way blogs may change the media/communication.
Most interesting from my point of view is that German Bloggers think about founding a kind of “legal protection insurance” as part of a “German Blogger Union” to defend members if they become accused or admonished. The Union should also give legal advice and collect precendence.
So the kind of funny beginnings of that Klum-Story leads to a new (?) way of blogger’s thinking.
achtung es eskaliert!
der shop— und der werbe—blogger stehen unter beschuss
und jetzt geht es rund in kleinbloggersdorf:
spreeblick | golem | wordpresser | lawblog | elfengleich | themenmixer | schockwellenreiter | basicthinking | lapidarium | büroblogge…
An open letter to Heidi Klum has been posted to clarify the whole case.
“…who dared use his Liebchen’s name. …”
*gg* very nice
Manual Trackback:
http://www.hirnrinde.de
(another regularly updated german overview on shopblogger / werbeblogger)
[...] Buzz Machine Blogherald.com Fratelliditalia.Iobloggo.com [...]
Manual Trackback:
http://www.4null4.de/2006/01/07/markenburnout-bei-klums/
[...] Günther K. “(™)(©)(®) hat sich auf einen Vielfrontenkrieg eingelassen, den er nie gewinnen kann und wird! Es kann nur einen moralischen Sieger geben und das wird auf jeden Fall ganz klar die freie Namensnennung im Internet sein. Zweiter Sieger bzw. Co-Sieger (aber auf keinen Fall first loser!!) wird Patrick Breitenbach sein, dem wir immer noch ganz fest die Daumen halten!Mittlerweile haben sich bereits ausländische Medien des Themas angenommen Buzz Machine Blogherald.com Fratelliditalia.Iobloggo.com und berichten verwundert über diesen Vorgang. [...]
Es kann nur noch Verlierer geben!