Warwick Wins Dispute with Gibson Over Wolf Hoffmann Guitar

Warwick has won a dispute with Gibson Brands over the Wolf Hoffmann signature guitar at the Hamburg Higher Regional Court.

Gibson filed a restraining order in 2014 under UWG law, claiming the Warwick model was an unfair imitation of Gibson’s Flying V guitar. In a press release, W-Music Distribution states, “This was an avoidable concealment of origin and also an exploitation of reputation. Warwick was unsuccessful in the first and second instance of the preliminary injunction proceedings. In the main proceedings, too, Gibson initially prevailed in the first instance. However, Warwick and its law-yers from Meissner Bolte in Munich were able to turn the case before the Hamburg Higher Regional Court (OLG Hamburg, 15 U 86/19).

For the court, the decisive factors were that the respective prospective buyers were familiar with the guitars and therefore could not be regarded as laymen. Furthermore, not only design differences, but also technical differences were of importance. One also had to take into account that in both cases the products in question were of relatively high quality.

Since the Higher Regional Court has explicitly allowed an appeal to the Federal Court of Justice, Gibson can still appeal.