Carl Zeiss Stiftung v. V.E.B. Carl Zeiss, Jena
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
293 F. Supp. 892 (1968)
- Written by Curtis Parvin, JD
Facts
The Abbe Foundation (Abbe) in Jena, Germany, held valuable optical-instrument trademarks. Carl Zeiss Stiftung (CZS) (plaintiff), a West German company, claimed to be the successor-in-interest to Abbe. CZS sued V.E.B. Carl Zeiss, Jena (VEB) (defendant), an East German company, for trademark infringement in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The litigation was related to multiple cases filed in various countries, including West Germany and East Germany. East Germany was then under the control of the Soviet Union. VEB sought to rely on a decision by the East Germany Supreme Court as dispositive of the trademark-ownership issue. The decision of the East German court was prepared ex parte, lacked objectivity, contained communist propaganda, railed against capitalism, and lacked judicial restraint.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Mansfield, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 791,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,200 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
