Chapter 4. German Unfair Competition Law

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of German unfair competition law by drawing an outline of the development of the law of unfair competition over the years. It addresses the scope of protection provided under the law of unfair competition in Germany, followed by an outline of the classifications used in the literature for this subject-matter, and a discussion of the famous general clause. The chapter looks at a group of unfair trading practices that are dealt with under German law in the field of misleading advertising, the discrediting of competitors and protection of achievements including know-how. German unfair competition law still employs a type of protection that is equivalent to the protection offered under intellectual property law. It is therefore better to accommodate this kind of protection within the system of intellectual property laws, instead of accommodating it under unfair competition law thereby unnecessarily stretching the concept of unfair competition.Keywords: german unfair competition law; intellectual property law; misleading advertising