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.