The German sandal maker had sought a ruling that its sandals could be classified as art and thus afforded strong copyright protections.
The federal court of justice in Karlsruhe sided with the judgment of a lower court, ruling that Birkenstock’s sandals could not be considered “copyrighted works of applied art”. The court added: “For copyright protection to apply, there must be such a degree of design that the product displays some individuality.
https://www.bundesgerichtshof.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2025/2025038.html?nn=19778950
The court said that “pure craftsmanship using formal design elements” was not enough, in a judgment that brought to a close the legal saga that began in May 2023.
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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