Berlin – The worm pattern at the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) keeps the lawyers on their toes. The legal dispute over whether and under what circumstances the state company may continue to use the design called Urban Jungle continues. After the BVG conceded a defeat at the Hamburg Regional Court, it appealed to the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court. The designer Herbert Lindinger has also challenged the judgment of the first instance with this appeal before the higher court. One thing is certain: the conflict that has been going on for years over the chaotic pattern of red, blue and black spots that characterizes seat covers and numerous souvenir items from BVG is far from over.
“The BVG announces that it has appealed against the judgment,” reported the new State Secretary Tino Schopf (SPD) in his answer to a parliamentary question from AfD MP Gunnar Lindemann, which was published on Wednesday. The Berliner Morgenpost had reported about it first. “The BVG assumes that the plaintiff – as announced – has also appealed,” the SPD politician continued. Lindinger’s Berlin lawyer Christian Donle from the law firm Preu, Bohlig & Partner had already announced to the Berliner Zeitung in December that he would like to go to the next instance.
BVG must hand out swimming trunks and neck pouches
The plaintiff’s appeal is against the decision of the Hamburg Regional Court, according to which the BVG does not have to remove the pattern at least from seat covers in subways and buses. Urban Jungle is allowed to stay there, according to the judges of the 10th Civil Chamber in their 37-page judgment (Altenzeichen 310 O 44/19). “The seats in all affected vehicles would have to be removed in one fell swoop,” said the decision. The trams and buses would not be usable for passengers that long – which would affect Berlin’s local traffic “very significantly”. This decision is disproportionate, argues lawyer Donle.
The 88-year-old designer Herbert Lindinger had achieved success in other areas. The Hamburg district court ruled that the transport company had to surrender merchandising items such as swimming trunks and neck pouches, printed products and most other things emblazoned with the urban jungle pattern – “for the purpose of destruction”. In addition, the judges granted the designer a claim for damages. In order for the amount to be calculated, the BVG must, among other things, report how much money it has earned with the Wimmelmuster.
Does anyone know where the contract is?
Lindinger is the creator of the patterns that are involved in the process. As “works of applied art” they are protected by copyright, Lindinger is the “original owner of the copyrights”. The court found that the BVG acted unlawfully because it did not obtain the rights of use.
The Berliner Kurier now reports that the BVG has called on its employees in an internal app to search for the lost contract to build the class 480 S-Bahn trains. In their prototypes, which began operating in West Berlin in 1986, the seat samples were designed by Herbert Lindinger. For the series trains that hit the rails from 1989 onwards, the designer had planned an “amorphous, restless” pattern in which smearings were supposed to get lost. At that time, the BVG was responsible for the S-Bahn operations in the west of the city.
The BVG now thinks that the Wimmelworms for the new S-Bahn trains should also be used for all of their vehicles, according to the Berliner Kurier. But she couldn’t prove that because of the lost contract and was subject to the designer. Hence the question: does anyone know where the contract is?
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