In October 2025, the Frankfurt District Court had ruled in favour of GEKA, by holding that the attacked applicators –despite the fact that their designs are not fully identical to the protected design– (See below images) create no different overall impression and therefore fall within the scope of protection of GEKA’s registered design. Consequently GEKA was granted the permanent injunction it had sought for, according to which, the defendant was prohibited from using the design without GEKA’s consent and GEKA is entitled to claim for damages. The judgement is final meanwhile, since the defendant withdrew the appeal that had filed against the Court Decision.
In a further Decision issued on March 2026 and prompted by the defendant’s counter attack, the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) has also ruled in favor of GEKA confirming the validity of the design right and that it enjoys at least a medium scope of protection due to its distinctive features and unique character at the time of filing. This decision is also final.
Both Decisions assume/confirm the validity of the design and give way for the evaluation that the applicator design enjoys at least a medium scope of protection due to its distinctive features and unique character at the time of filing.
The decision of this case is of practical relevance since the concerned applicators were acquired outside of EU and imported to and distributed in Germany by different established cosmetics retailers, as part of cosmetic units filled with lip preparations as a brand product of the defendant, which confirms the prohibition from offering, selling and distributing such products falling within the scope of the design in German Territory, despite their origin or primary market.
GEKA and the defendant had an earlier legal dispute over another applicator and the same German registered design, and in a settlement agreement the cosmetic brand had agreed to stop selling the disputed applicator in Germany and to not sell applicators infringing the Design in future. The Frankfurt Regional Court also decided that the sale of the mentioned applicators in Germany was a breach of the earlier settlement agreement.
GEKA considers this an important victory and will continue to vigorously fight for its rights and defend its entitlement to claim ownership over its proprietary well-known and unique appearing applicator, the LipDEFINER (Exercised Applicator Design, perspective view only, shown below) which benefits from the recent judgement.
GEKA and the medmix group have previously enforced their rights in a significant number of cases to protect their intellectual property and are more determined than ever to enforce their IP-rights and to avail judicial help for that purpose, if necessary. This is a commitment the medmix group has made – not least to protect its customers and users from copies made by third parties that are not subject to GEKA’s rigorous testing and quality control and therefore cannot be covered by its warranty.
