SUMMER – FESTIVAL TIME – BUILDING TRADEMARK VALUE

SUMMER – FESTIVAL TIME – BUILDING TRADEMARK VALUE

Well over two months late for World IP Day, but still keen to talk about IP and music.

Per chance, I recently listened to an OMR podcast with Holger Hübner, one of the founders of the Wacken Open Air festival and I was surprised how focused he was on brand management and the implications it has. More than once he reiterated that “the brand takes precedence over everything.” What a great example of how Intellectual Property (IP) and music go hand in hand.

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(Source: Shutterstock, ID: 2293214123)

1. Introduction

With all the music festivals taking place in summer, it becomes clear that the relationship between IP and music cannot be reduced to the name of a band or a song, but that it is much broader. It is about credibility, building assets, retaining your customer base and last but not least – on a personal basis – having a good time with old friends and making new ones. For those of you that are not familiar with the Wacken Open Air festival, let me give you a few facts about it.

2. The Festival

The Wacken Open Air Festival, or WOA, was founded by friends that could not get enough of heavy metal music and wanted to share that spirit with others. In the small town of Wacken located in the very north of Germany they were able to gather 500 likeminded people for their first festival in 1990. 35 years later, the event attracts over 80,000 heavy metal and rock fans from all over the world. The 2025 festival tickets were sold out fast – and long before it was announced that Guns N’ Roses were going to head the lineup.

The festival’s “holy ground” is an area of over 360 hectares of rural acker in Wacken which are farmed normally during the year – with electricity and telecommunication cables and even a beer pipeline buried deep in the ground to not affect the farm work and still cater the festival.

As you can imagine, 80,000 fans are not just challenging for the festival organizer, but also have a considerable impact on a small, rural community like Wacken with only about 2,100 inhabitants (see www.wacken.de). Overall, there are quite a few stakeholders that need to be taken into account when planning a festival of this size and each decision affects the festival and the brand build upon it.

3. The Brand

Referring to “the brand” is an understatement. The festival brand is backed by several registered trademarks led by

a. word marks like

• “Wacken Open Air” (e.g. DE 399 03 206) or
• “W:O:A” (e.g. DE 301 51 011 or EUTM 018354678),

b. mere figurative marks like

(e.g. DE 399 03 209),

c. word/device marks like

(e.g. EUTM 007360985)                                (e.g. EUTM 008934127)

The trademarks are used broadly on merchandise like clothing, headwear, towels, blankets, glasses, mugs, toys and much more. The festival even has its own Monopoly game:

(see https://festivalstore.wacken.com/products/w-o-a-monopoly)

But coming back to the OMR podcast with Holger Hübner… Hearing him emphasize several times that “the brand takes precedence over everything“ it became clear that every decision regarding the festival is made with a strong focus on the implications it has:

• Is it in favor of the brand? Does it enhance or endanger the brand?
• Does it have any advantage for the fans, for the heavy metal community?
• Is it sustainable? Does it allow the “holy ground” to stay as is – a rural acker?

If an offer is not at least meeting these criteria, it is being turned down – regardless of the monetary value it might have as the negative impacts on the brand could be significant.

Our firm is not representing the Wacken Open Air festival trademarks, but being a trademark attorney, listening to this podcast was very enlightening and encouraging as it showed firsthand the appreciation and value that trademarks have to brand owners. Being part of a professional community that helps the latter securing and enforcing their trademarks to ensure that all the brand awareness and brand management pays off, feels good.

Should you also have a trademark that you would like to legally protect to ensure that no one else takes advantage of or even harms your brand, you are always welcome to contact us for further information on trademark law, either by phone at +49 89 55 879 870 or by email to

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