Brand Litigation: Jägermeister Prevails in IP Dispute

Aug 11, 2023 Benn-Ibler Rechtsanwälte

The packaging of the well-known Jägermeister herbal liqueur was imitated by a discount-label retailer. Jägermeister took action against this by obtaining an injunction throughout the EU.

The action was brought by the proprietor of the word mark Jägermeister and several figurative and word marks under which it markets its herbal liqueur. The defendant is a chain of discount retail shops which also sells herbal liqueur under its own trade mark.

On the grounds of unfair exploitation of its reputation, Jägermeister has now obtained an EU-wide injunction against the discounter’s trademark. The defendant was provisionally prohibited from advertising, offering, marketing, importing, exporting, and/or distributing its herbal liqueur using these product characteristics.

The Austrian Supreme Court granted the application. The defendant had no legitimate reasons for packaging and labelling its herbal liqueur in the way it had chosen.

In particular, the combination of colours, the lettering on the orange band, and the figurative representation of the deer’s head, taken as a whole, are strikingly reminiscent of the applicant’s well-known marks and give rise to a likelihood of association and exploitation of Jägermeister’s reputation.

The defendant’s own red and white discounter’s mark is not capable of eliminating the obvious association with that of Jägermeister because it is not applied to the defendant’s product in such a way as to not attract attention and preclude exploitation of its reputation.

The reference to the applicant’s design elements, such as the deer’s head, is intended and suitable to appeal to young consumers and partygoers who actually use the applicant’s products.

OGH 4 Ob 55/23a (31 May 2023)