The German Twitch streamer Trymacs had planned a big event for December with “Kick auf Eis”. But now he has to change the event because Stefan Raab and his company threatened him with a heavy fine. But did Raab even have a chance of success? The well-known “Internet lawyer” Christian Solmecke clarifies this in a video.
What was the problem?
Trymacs then revised the entire event and now lets the influencers play on an adapted soccer field. But would Raab really have won the lawsuit? The lawyer Christian Solmecke – specialist for Internet and media law – doubts that in his video.
“In terms of its concept, a television program may in principle be copied”
What does Solmecke say exactly? In the first few minutes of the video he summarizes the situation and the statements made by Trymacs. The streamer explained that he didn’t understand where the problems were because football on ice was difficult to protect.
Solmecke picks this up and begins to break down the various trademark and patent rights and explain them in detail.
In the case of trademark law, the lawyer finds an entry from 2009, where Raab wanted to secure the naming rights to the “German Ice Football Cup”. However, the application was rejected due to lack of distinctiveness.
What Raab and his company have secured, however, are the image rights to special logos for the event. However, the Trymacs image was “miles away” from that, as Solmecke emphasizes.
There can also be no patent rights for the event, since patents represent property rights for technical innovations. That is not the case here.
What about other rights? At the end, the copyright remains. However, the event must be something “unprecedented” for this, which can probably be doubted when playing football on ice.
In addition, Raab straddles the transmission format judgment of the Federal Court of Justice in between. Because that means, according to Solmecke, that “a television program may fundamentally be copied in terms of its concept”. An abstract show concept, such as kicking on ice, therefore does not enjoy copyright protection.
Only the presentation may not be copied, such as the lighting, special rules or the stage design. According to Solmecke, however, it is not enough to secure an ice surface with two goals as a “special stage setting”.
From the lawyer’s point of view, Trymacs would only have had to make a few minor adjustments to allow the event to take place.
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A residual risk remains
Why is the event still being changed? The “Kick on Ice” event has now become “The Big Kick”. The broadcaster Joyn, with which the event is being organized, emphasizes that the event will have a “new gameplay”, but that the participants may change. It is currently not clear how exactly everything is going to happen.
But why did you change the concept and not insist on ice football? Because there is a residual risk.
There could be an injunction shortly before the start, which cancels the event. Even if a court contradicts this later, the event has to be canceled first.
“That’s why TV stations sometimes pull in their tails and say: ‘That’s too sensitive for us, even if we’re right,'” says Solmecke. And there is always the chance that the broadcaster will lose and then have to pay additional damages.
By the way, Trymacs himself is very disappointed in his idol Stefan Raab. He was always a big fan, but he was anything but enthusiastic about the warning. Both had worked together at least indirectly at the last Wok World Cup, which Raab organized in the background:
Twitch streamer Trymacs is injured at the Wok World Cup, Knossi falls in the grand final