The German Trademark Act provides no sanctions against the use of published trademark filings. To obtain the coveted property right, the applicant has to tolerate the administrative publication of the filing. From that moment on, everybody can use the published trademark for his own needs without fearing any repercussions. Contrary to this, a lot of other European countries like Italy, France and the United Kingdom provide sanctions as for instance reasonable compensations or damages before registration. The Community Trademark provides a reasonable compensation too. This paper discusses and compares all sanctions of EPC, PCT, MMA, PMMA, CTM, Community Design, Plant Variety Protection etc. which could provide an adequate protection for the German trademark applicant during the period between the date of publication of the filing and the date of registration of the trademark. The protection level must be limited to reasonable compensations.

Autorentext
Dr. Bastian Selck hat Rechtswissenschaften an der Universität Kiel studiert. Er ist zur Zeit als Rechtsreferendar im Bezirk des Oberlandesgerichts Düsseldorf tätig.