COPYRIGHT AND MEDIA LAW.
Matters pertaining to copyright law are particularly – although not exclusively – relevant to media companies. Copyright issues are also becoming an increasingly important matter in the day-to-day business of other sectors – whether for advertising purposes, website design or the use of music. BROCK MÜLLER ZIEGENBEIN advises companies and creators from all sectors with respect to handling their own or third-party copyright – from the development of a business idea to drafting the necessary agreements and negotiating with copyright holders or rights distributors. Where necessary, this includes legal enforcement to protect a client’s own rights or to defend alleged third-party rights. In the wider sense, copyright and media law also include the extrajudicial and, where necessary, judicial representation of our clients’ interests in defending against damaging false statements of fact or unlawful abusive criticism, as is increasingly emerging on internet forums, for example. We also handle issues relating to negative media reporting.
Dr. Thomas Guttau
born 1983, university studies in Kiel, Marburg, and Poitiers/France; postgraduate judicial service training in Kiel, admitted as attorney in 2013, Certified Specialist for intellectual property law
Specialisation: Intellectual property law (in particular, trademark, design and unfair competition law), food law, medicinal product and pharmaceuticals advertising, legal issues regarding advertising and marketing, general civil and contract law.
The focus of Dr Guttau’s work lies in intellectual property law, primarily unfair competition and trademark law. He currently assists with trademark and design registrations at national and international level, and manages a range of trademark portfolios. Alongside all this, he frequently handles cease and desist actions, infringement proceedings, and compensation claims with respect to intellectual property rights.
Dr Guttau also has outstanding expertise in food law and in medicinal product and pharmaceuticals advertising law. His clients in this area range from small and medium-sized enterprises to large corporates, as well as sole proprietors and start-ups; his work in this area tends to focus on advertising campaigns and all regulatory matters such as labelling and health claims.
As regards business law, Dr Guttau mainly advises on contract drafting and handles litigation.
Dr Guttau is a member of the Admissions Committee for Specialist Lawyers for Commercial Legal Protection of the Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Bar Associations and works as a lecturer at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel. He is also a member of GRUR (Society for the Protection of Intellectual Property and Copyright), is active in the Marketing Club Schleswig-Holstein e.V. and is also the author of various publications on food and drug law. Until 2023 he was also a member of the scientific advisory board of the research center for food law at the University of Marburg.