Willy Hoffmann (lawyer)

Willy Oskar Bruno Hoffmann (born February 29, 1888 in Leipzig ; † August 24, 1942 ibid) was a German legal scholar and lawyer .

Life

Willy Hoffmann was born in Leipzig in 1888. After graduating from the Thomas School in Leipzig , he studied law in Leipzig and Munich . He was on 30 September 1912 at the University of Leipzig to Dr. iur. PhD. After an interruption due to the war, he completed his legal training in 1919. From March 1, 1919, he was a lawyer at the Leipzig Regional Court and worked temporarily with the lawyers Hans Otto and Kurt Runge .

In addition to his work as a lawyer, particularly in the areas of copyright law, industrial property protection and competition law, and since 1932 also as a notary in Leipzig, Hoffmann developed an almost feverish activity as a legal specialist author. After his death, his list of publications was about 30 pages. In doing so , he predominantly commented on copyright law and the then young discipline of radio law . In this respect, his creative power is definitely reminiscent of Josef Kohler , even if he did not work so comprehensively in the most diverse areas of law.

Hoffmann made particular efforts on the one hand to reform the copyright law in Germany, in which he presented at least two highly regarded drafts. His draft from 1932 (published in 1933) became the basis of the reform proposal of the Academy for German Law . On the other hand, he was preoccupied with questions of international copyright law, with papers on the Berne Convention and a well- regarded book on copyright laws abroad. Hoffmann was considered very well connected internationally. In addition to this, he worked on other topical issues at the time, such as the protection of performing artists, whose achievements he initially dogmatically regarded as equivalent to the creative work protected by copyright, but which he later classified - dogmatically correct - as an immaterial achievement to be distinguished from it.

In addition to his work as a lawyer, Hoffmann was from 1925 to 1927 legal advisor for the Reich Broadcasting Corporation . He was also active in establishing specialist journals in his field of activity. In 1928 he founded the specialist journal "Archiv für Funkrecht", which he was responsible for as co-editor and editor until 1933, and was managing director of the German Study Society for Radio Law. In addition, together with Paul Tuesdays and Walter Siegel, he was one of three editors of the "Archive for Copyright, Film and Theater Law" (UFITA), founded in 1928, and jointly responsible for looking after one of the most important journals in the field of intellectual property law in German-speaking countries. Like Tuesday, he saw himself as its founder. Hoffmann was the journal's sole editor from 1933 until his death.

Fonts

• The Reich law on publishing law with explanations. Comment. Berlin 1925.
• Studies on the revision of the revised Berne Convention , GRUR 1926, 465–472.
• Revision of the Rev. Bern Convention, V. Copyright of the reproducing artist , GRUR 1927, 69–72.
• The proposals of the Italian government and the Bern International Bureau for revision d. Revised Berne Convention , Börsenblatt 1927, 484–487.
• Draft law on copyright in works of literature and art , UFITA Vol. 2 (1929), 659–668.
• Thoughts on the systematics of a German copyright law , GRUR 1931, 706–713.
• The record concert of the broadcasting companies , GRUR 1932, 44–48.
• A German Copyright Act , Berlin 1933.
• On the regulation of the rights of performing artists in radio broadcasting and mechanical reproduction , ArchFunkR Vol. 6 (1933), 92–99.
• The wishes of the Rome Conference as a guide for the development of copyright law , GRUR 1934, 699–706.
• The Bern Convention for the Protection of Works of Literature and Art of September 9, 1886, revised in Berlin on November 13, 1908 a. in Rome on June 2, 1928 , Berlin 1935.
• The right of music. An explanatory presentation of the laws, ordinances and regulations applicable to musical copyright in alphabetical form , Leipzig 1936 (with Wilhelm Ritter).
• The right of the inventor. An introduction to the Patent Act of May 5, 1936 and the Utility Model Act of May 5, 1936, Leipzig 1936
• The record judgment of the Reichsgericht , UFITA Vol. 10 (1937), 133–142.
• Work and performance , JW 1938, 486–490.
• The competition between copyright and performance protection , UFITA Vol. 12 (1939), 96-114.
• Copyright laws abroad , Berlin 1939.

literature

• Reich judge a. D. Dr. Georg Müller, Willy Hoffmann [obituary], UFITA 15 (1942), 293 ff.
• Richard Moser v. Filseck, obituary for Willy Hoffmann, GRUR 1942, 377
• Hildegard Härtwig, writings by Willy Hoffmann , UFITA 17 (1944), 198–224.
• Ingo Fessmann , Broadcasting and Broadcasting Law in the Weimar Republic , Frankfurt a. M. 1973, p. 217 note 19.
• Ralf-M. Vogt, The Copyright Reform Discussions in Germany during the Weimar Republic and National Socialism , Frankfurt a. M. u. a. 2004, p. 59.
• Simon Apel, Matthias Wießner: Willy Oskar Bruno Hoffmann (1888-1942) . In: Simon Apel, Louis Pahlow , Matthias Wießner (eds.): Biographisches Handbuch des Intellectual Property , Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2017, pp. 142–146.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Isabella Löhr, The Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights , Göttingen 2010, p. 202.
2. ↑ Simon Apel, The performing musician in the law of Germany and the USA , Tübingen 2011, pp. 90 f., 111 f .; contemporary to this change of opinion Hoffmann z. B. August Vortisch, The copyright of the reproducing artist , Jur.Diss. Basel 1935, p. 11.
3. ↑ Today " Archive for Copyright and Media Law ".