From:	 Florian Hars <florian@hars.de>
To:	 lwn@lwn.net
Subject: Trademarks and guilt by association
Date:	 Fri, 6 Jul 2001 16:32:14 +0200

According to german trademark law, guilt by association is more than
enough. The arguments you mention -- he is not the copyright
hoder, there is no single responsible individual -- are simply
irrelevant in german trademark law. You are even liable if you are in 
the transport business and a customer gives you an infringing product 
that is packed in a totally neutral box to deliver to someone else. 

So managing a web site for an infringing product (where you know about 
the content of the site) is definitely sufficient. In fact, if the name
KIllustrator should be considered as infringing on Adobe's trademark, then
-- at lest according to some influential lawyers -- *anyone* putting a 
link to KIllustrator on a website, contributing code to it, distributing
it on a free linux CD, ... can be held liable for infringing
the trademark.

Yours, Florian Hars.