Reputation Protection for Corporate Clients

Reputation Protection for Corporate Clients

There are several ways to react to ne­gative media cover­age. Legal steps are an option, but not always a cure-all. Whether one should react using media law de­pends on many de­tails of the indi­vidual case.

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Reputation Protection for Individual Clients

Reputation Protection for Individual Clients

Media reporting may des­troy the honor and re­pu­ta­tion of an indi­vi­dual. Wheth­er false state­ments, ille­gally pro­duced pho­tos or films or re­por­ting on as­pects of one’s pri­vate life – there are many dif­ferent forms of vio­lation of the law.

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Communication Crises

Communication Crises

Negative media re­port­ing about com­pa­nies can have catas­trophic re­sults. The re­lation­ship with em­ploy­ees, custo­mers, sup­pliers and banks may suffer per­ma­nent damage.

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Compliance Crises

Compliance Crises

The public pro­secu­tor is at the front door with a search warrant. A tele­vision crew is shoot­ing out­side the cor­po­rate head­quar­ters. The com­mu­ni­ca­tion de­part­ment is cons­tan­tly bom­bar­ded with new ques­tions by the media.

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Litigation – PR

Litigation – PR

Lawsuits are public. Anybody engaging in a lawsuit should expect it to be reported on. The public sometimes judges differently from the court. Even law­suits that have been won can severely da­mage the image of a com­pany or an indi­vidual. We have successfully dealt with the positive and negative aspects of public litigation since 1985.

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Reputation Management and Prevention

Reputation Management and Prevention

Whether an individual or a strategically operated com­pany, their re­putation is the grea­test asset. It needs to be managed and pro­tected.

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Copyright Law

Copyright Law

Turn­ing an idea in­to real­ity and cre­at­ing a work is al­ways something very spe­cial. We pro­tect your cre­at­ive work and sup­port you in the event of copy­right dis­putes.

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Trademark Law

Trademark Law

What a repu­ta­tion is to a per­son, a brand is to a com­pany. Every case is dif­fer­ent in trade­mark law and a pos­sible like­li­hood of con­fu­sion must be as­sessed in each in­di­vidu­al case.

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Competition Law

Competition Law

Com­pet­i­tion is good for busi­ness – but not everything is al­lowed in com­pet­i­tion either. We check your mar­ket­ing meas­ures such as ad­vert­ise­ments, so­cial me­dia post­ings, sales cam­paigns, com­pet­i­tions and web­sites for their leg­al feas­ib­il­ity and take ac­tion on your be­half against il­leg­al ac­tions by your com­pet­it­ors.

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Art Law – Advice from specialists

Art Law – Advice from specialists

Our lawyers have a special under­standing of the in­terests of artists, cultural insti­tutions, collec­tors, auction houses and publishers.

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Labor & Contract Law – We solve your problems!

Labor & Contract Law – We solve your problems!

For more than 35 years we have advised labor law for em­ploy­ees and on the law of ser­vice con­tracts for board mem­bers.

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Sports Law

Sports Law

With sports developing into a signi­ficant in­dustry, the legal support of sports is be­coming increa­singly rele­vant.

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Law for Influencers

Law for Influencers

Mod­ern com­pan­ies have been re­ly­ing on the wide reach of in­flu­en­cers for years and their en­gage­ment has already re­placed tra­di­tion­al mar­ket­ing tools in many places. The great­er the suc­cess, the more likely you are to be in the fo­cus of com­pet­it­ors and con­trol in­sti­tu­tions.

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European Union Data Representative Services

European Union Data Rep­res­ent­at­ive Services

We offer the service as an Euro­pean Union Re­pre­sen­tative for third country companies.

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Security & Investigations

Security & Investigations

In association with Schillings International LLP, we of­fer the fol­low­ing ex­tra-leg­al ser­vices…

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For more than 35 years

We protect your rights

We have successfully protected rights and reputation of our clients for over 35 years.

We ad­vise be­fore the me­dia cov­er­age to avoid im­pend­ing me­dia crises and pre­vent them. But we also lit­ig­ate if necessary. Our ad­vice is based on more than 10,000 suc­cess­ful na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al tri­als and count­less fun­da­ment­al law­suits up to the Ger­man Fed­er­al Su­preme Court, the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion­al Court and the European Court of Hu­man Rights.

Law Office

Prof. Dr. Matthias Prinz LL.M.

»Germany's most famous media lawyer.«

— BILD Deutschland, 01.12.2017

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Dr. Jan Felix Dein

Reputation pro­tection for companies & private clients

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Lena Philippi

Certified attorney for copyright and media law

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Dr. Jan Räker LL.M.

Lawyer for public law and sports law

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

FAQ

Claims and strategies in media law

Preliminary injunctions, legal threatening letters, press law:

Many press spokespersons and heads of communications consider this to be "forbidden devil's stuff".

Under no circumstances is such a thing considered, because it disturbs their nice relationship with the editors and journalists. CEOs who are annoyed by media reports often take a different view.

They want to show that they can also defend themselves. Both positions have something for themselves. If you're too nice and let yourself be pushed around, you won't get far.

But those who constantly harass journalists with temporary injunctions or criminal charges are in danger. He has to reckon with the media taking revenge one day. […]

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Counterstatement

The counterstatement claim gives the option to contradict a representation in the media. The counterstatement is the declaration by the person concerned of an untrue factual assertion which has been published.

There are only counterstatements against factual allegations, but not against expressions of opinion. The following counterstatement is therefore unthinkable:

"In BLICK on 01.07.2011 it was claimed on page 27 that our football team had played badly on Saturday. This is incorrect. The team played well."

Whether there is a fact or an expression of opinion can be difficult to determine in individual cases. […]

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Injunctive Relief

The right to cease and desist can prevent an illegal reporting that has already taken place or is threatened for the first time.

It is therefore of particular practical importance. By means of a temporary injunction, it can provide rapid and effective protection against imminent impairments.

The injunctive relief can be directed against illegal texts as well as against inadmissible photographs or films.

An injunctive relief for word reporting does not only exist against untrue factual claims [...].

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Corrigendum

A corrigendum, i.e. a revocation or a correction, is a declaration by the media company that the distributed article contained incorrect factual claims.

An example: "On July 1, 2011, in our magazine A, we stated on page 27 that AAG had paid a pension to Mr. A. In this case, the company had to pay a pension to Mr. A.

We hereby revoke this allegation as untrue. AAG did not make any payments to Mr A."

A correction claim only exists in the event of untrue factual allegations. There is no correction in respect of expressions of opinion. […]

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Compensation for pain and suffering, damages and enrichment

The claim for damages is aimed at the compensation of actually incurred damages.

For example, damage may consist of someone losing their job and losing their earnings due to inadmissible reporting.

Similarly, legal expenses, including attorneys' fees, may be recoverable.

In the case of the commercial exploitation of asset personality elements, the injured party can calculate the damage in three different ways according to the case law. […]

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Press Complaint

In the case of violations of the press code there is the possibility of a press council complaint.

Any person can complain to the Press Council about newspapers, magazines and since, January 1, 2009, the journalistic and editorial contributions from the Internet, provided it is not broadcasting.

Clubs, associations, etc., are also entitled to do so.

The complaint is free of charge.

In practice, however, the press council complaint is of little relevance.

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Criminal complaint

We also rarely recommend taking criminal action.

An investigative procedure for insult or defamation (§§ 185 ff. StGB) usually takes a long time and rarely leads to a conviction.

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Strategic considerations

In addition to the legal and procedural aspects, strategic considerations play an important role in the approach to media reports that violate personality rights.

How and where to enforce a temporary injunction, or bring an action in the main proceedings, is one side; the available measures to take, and whether at all is the other.

The assessment begins with the crucial question: What are the chances of success?

You should not lead processes that you lose.

This may sound banal, but in practice it is often difficult to talk angry people out of processes they will not win. […]

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Are you looking for new challenges?

Career

Legal assistant (m/f/d)

We only hire those who fit in our team. The working environment as well as the payment is great.

We look forward to your application.

Lawyer (m/f/d)

We are looking for a committed lawyer (m/f/d) who shares our passion for PRESS and MEDIA law.

You can expect independent and responsible support for interesting mandates as well as a very varied job in a collegial team. We look forward to getting to know you!

Legal trainee (m/f/d)

We are looking for committed legal interns (m/f/d).

You can expect interesting insights into PRESS and MEDIA law as well as personal training.

Prinz Lawyers

Contact

For general inquiries: info@prinzlaw.com

All contact information and a contact form can be found on our contact page: Contact Page