Official coat of arms

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This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

From an official coat of arms is when a crest of a government agency such as authority or a court or a municipality as a national emblem is used.

Corporations bearing coat of arms

Federal coat of arms (federal eagle with frame)

In Germany, the federal government, the federal states and municipalities have an official coat of arms.

The federal coat of arms shows the single-headed black eagle on a golden yellow background, the head turned to the right, the wings open but with closed plumage, beak, tongue and fangs of red color.

The use of the black, red and gold federal flag (without the federal coat of arms, Article 22, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law) is permitted to everyone, e.g. B. as a fan article at international sporting events, the use of the federal service flag (federal flag with federal coat of arms), however, only the federal agencies.

The management of the state coats of arms is also reserved for specific bodies. The municipalities can regulate the use of their coat of arms in heraldic statutes .

The use of municipal coats of arms is reserved for the municipal administration, for example in the form of official seals, in letterhead and on official printed matter, on official signs, official vehicles and electronic communication and work equipment. Use by third parties requires their approval, but not the mere representation in the sense of a quotation such as editorial use that does not violate any legitimate interests of the community.

Legal protection

Naming rights

The right of the municipalities, rural districts and districts to use their names and emblems is part of the historically inherited sovereignty of the local authorities. If another without authorization the same name used, there are names legal disposal and injunctive public entity of § 12 BGB .

Under certain conditions, such as a change of territory, a municipality can change or remove its historical name. New coats of arms and flags can be adopted or changed at your own discretion.

copyright

Protected work

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According to the justification for the draft law on copyright and related rights, coats of arms do not belong to the other official works unprotected by copyright according to § 5 Paragraph 2 UrhG , which have been published for general information in the official interest, although non-linguistic works are also official works within the meaning of the Can be a requirement. Because an official interest in publication exists only if the public expects or enables a certain behavior based on the information, namely to do something or not to do something, for example in the case of an official map of the seashore showing the places dangerous for bathers are specially marked, official traffic signs or official brochures on pension, social security and tax issues in order to be able to submit the correct declarations or applications. Just as in the case of coats of arms, banknotes, coins or postage stamps are not linked to any specific behavior on the part of citizens.

Therefore, official coats of arms are not in accordance with § 5 Abs. 1 UrhG as official announcement in the public domain . The official announcement of banknotes, coins, postage stamps, coats of arms or other artistically designed national emblems, official buildings, building drafts and models for urban planning does not lead to a public domain, because they lack the legal character of a regulation as purely informational statements.

Scope of usage rights

Regardless of the question of whether an official coat of arms as a work of the visual arts according to Section 2 (1) no. 4 UrhG is one of the protectable self-creative services of sufficient creative height, the purpose speaks for the fact that the client is granted a comprehensive right to use the emblem by the artist.

On October 18, 1933, the Baden Higher Regional Court in Karlsruhe dismissed the action brought by a graphic artist who had designed the coat of arms of the Republic of Baden . The statement of appeal stated: “According to the judgment of the regional court, the Reichsdruckerei should not even be allowed to print the coat of arms of the Baden state and a private individual should be entitled to the copyright on the Baden state coat of arms and the Baden state should only have a license on its own coat of arms. Such a view is unbearable ”.

The peculiarity of the intended use of a work as a national emblem also leads to the assumption in German case law that the sovereign must be granted the comprehensive exclusive rights of use. “The purpose of using it as a national emblem results in the justified interest of the state in being able to dispose of the design as a state coat of arms free of third party rights. This is based on the constitutional right of the state to use such symbols to represent itself. Only the state therefore has the power to decide on the use of the state coat of arms. It would be incompatible with the purpose of use, which is exclusively assigned to the public corporation, if the artist commissioned with the creation of a design could retain individual rights of use when delivering his work - for example for use in the commercial sector. ”The country's comprehensive right of use also includes a so-called public declaration for a derived symbol, through whose use the interested sections of the population can express their attachment to the country.

The author can of course agree on an appropriate remuneration for the exclusive right of use, even if the sovereign does not gain any economic advantages from the use of the national coat of arms. However, it is generally unusual to indicate the author of the design when depicting national emblems and coats of arms ( Section 13 UrhG). If a coat of arms in the sense of a quotation ( § 51 UrhG) is reproduced in an independent publication, the source does not need to be cited.

Incidentally, coats of arms can be lacking in a protected design level solely because of numerous design specifications from the client and historical models .

For example, the coat of arms of the municipality of Eckartshausen is made up of two existing motifs, the Franconian rake and the beam coat of arms of the Ysenburgers . However, the combination of the two motifs to a new coat of arms according to heraldic customs lacks the height of creation .

  • Insufficient height of creation

  • Franconian rake

  • Eckartshausen

  • Ysenburger

Criminal and administrative offense law

The denigration of the coat of arms of the Federal Republic of Germany or a federal state is acc. Punished according to Section 90a of the Criminal Code ( disparagement of the state and its symbols ), misleading advertising with a coat of arms according to Section 16 of the UWG .

The unauthorized use of the federal or state coat of arms and the official flag of the federal or state state constitutes an administrative offense ( Section 124 of the OWiG). The Federal Office of Administration can authorize the use of the federal coat of arms.

The unlawful use of a coat of arms to mark goods or services is acc. § 145 MarkenG punished by the Federal Office of Justice .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Announcement regarding the federal coat of arms and the federal eagle of January 20, 1950 in the corrected version published in the Federal Law Gazette Part III, structure number 1130-1
  2. ↑ Thomas Troidl: A little flagship for lawyers ( Memento of the original from October 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Publicus, 2014/11 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.publicus-boorberg.de
  3. ^ Order on the German flags of November 13, 1996 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 1729 )
  4. ↑ cf. For example, Section 1, Paragraph 1 of the Ordinance of the Saxon State Government on the use of the coat of arms of the Free State of Saxony (Wappenverordnung - WappenVO) ( Memento of the original from June 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of March 4, 2005, SächsGVBl. P. 40; Section 2 (1) Ordinance on the use of the state coat of arms of May 16, 1956 ,recht.nrw.de, accessed on June 13, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.protokoll-inland.de
  5. ↑ Example: Regulations on the use of municipal coats of arms - coat of arms regulation from December 15, 2005. Link on the website of the municipality of Bannewitz .
  6. ↑ cf. for example Art. 4 Para. 3 Municipal Code for the Free State of Bavaria (Municipal Code - GO) GVBl. P. 796, BayRS 2020-1-1-I; § 4 Regulations for the use of municipal coats of arms - Arms regulation of the municipality of Bannewitz from December 15, 2005
  7. ↑ Christian Lipovsek: Copyright infringed: Trouble about the city arms on Facebook Holsteinischer Courier , September 14, 2016
  8. ↑ cf. For example, the resolution of the municipal authorities of the city of Büdingen in the Wetterau district of April 21, 2016 (I / 456/2015) on dealing with city coats of arms
  9. ↑ Sandra Bessière: Do rights of use to coats of arms have to be clarified or not? ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 15th December 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.pixxatwork.de
  10. ↑ Names and national emblems ( memento of the original dated August 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior , accessed on June 13, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stmi.bayern.de
  11. ↑ cf. for example Art. 2 Para. 2 Municipal Code for the Free State of Bavaria (Municipal Code - GO) GVBl. P. 796, BayRS 2020-1-1-I; Ordinance on municipal names, national emblems and territorial changes (NHGV) of January 21, 2000, GVBl. P. 54, BayRS 2020-5-1-I
  12. ↑ cf. for example coats of arms and national emblems; Municipalities Bavarian State Ministry of Finance, for Regional Development and Homeland (Ed.): Bayern Portal , accessed on June 13, 2016
  13. ↑ cf. BT-Drs. IV / 270 Rationale for the draft law on copyright and related rights (Copyright Act) of March 23, 1962, p. 39 f.
  14. ↑ left open: OLG Cologne, judgment of May 5, 2000 - 6 U 21/00
  15. ↑ Copyright: UrhG. ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 3rd edition, Munich 2014, § 5, margin no. 22nd @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.beck-shop.de
  16. ↑ Copyright: UrhG ( Memento of the original dated August 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 3rd edition, Munich 2014, § 5, margin no. 15th @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.beck-shop.de
  17. ↑ BGH, judgment of July 20, 2006 - I ZR 185/03 marginal no. 17 ff.
  18. ^ AA regarding postage stamps LG Munich I GRUR 1987, 436 (437)
  19. ↑ Quoted from: Herwig John, in: Bild und Geschichte , 1997, p. 339
  20. ↑ BGH, BRAK-Mitt 2003, 283 mwN
  21. ↑ OLG Frankfurt, decision of August 15, 2014 - 11 W 5/14 JurPC Web-Doc. 155/2014, paras. 1 - 111, margin no. 81 on the draft of the new Hessian state coat of arms in 1949
  22. ↑ OLG Frankfurt, decision of August 15, 2014 - 11 W 5/14 margin no. 105
  23. ↑ OLG Frankfurt, decision of August 15, 2014 - 11 W 5/14 margin no. 60
  24. ↑ Jens Ferner: Copyright: The right to quote according to § 51 UrhG ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 19th October 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ferner-alsdorf.de
  25. ^ LG Frankfurt am Main, decision of December 30, 2013 - 2-03 O 264/13 pp. 14-18
  26. ↑ Federal eagle or national emblem ( memento of the original from April 17, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of the Federal Office of Administration, accessed on March 9, 2018 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bva.bund.de
  27. ↑ Flags and coats of arms on products or in the advertising website of the IHK Hochrhein-Bodensee, accessed on June 13, 2016
  28. ↑ Christian Burkiczak: The criminal and regulatory protection of the German state symbols . Juristische Rundschau 2/2005, p. 50 ff.