Welcome to the English Part of Our Website
The law firm of Kanzlei Flick offers legal services especially for entrepreneurs, authors and artists of the IT and multimedia branch in all matters of legal questions since 1998.
The chamber of Kanzlei Flick sees itself as a modern legal-service, in which the thorough advise of the clients is prior to all. Of course we also offer the "classic" lawyer's job such as going to court or execution.
Our subjects of main occupation indicate a service-profile, that is very much specialized in the multimedia-business and always focuses on economic solutions. The locations of the chambers next to the Multimedia-Center HH1 stresses this specialization out.
Our occupation of course affords a modern equipment, that is provided by legal online and offline-databases e.g., so that we can deal with client-issues early and effectively.
Please do not hesitate to send us an e-mail, if you have any questions about our chambers and our work.
CV of Mr.Flick
Mr. Guido Flick was born in Hamburg in 1967 and has been living in Stuttgart, Passau/Bavaria and in Dover/Kent (Great Britain).
He has studied law in Passau and in Hamburg. During his university time he already was interested very much in media-laws such as press-laws, intellectual property laws, telecommunication-rights and broadcasting-rights.
After the first exam he moved to Schwerin in the former easter part of Germany to do his compulsory internship of two years in Schwerin.
Before setting up his law-firm he has worked at AOL-Germany´s legal department and later was in charge of legal matters for AOL Germany.
The main occupation of Mr. Flick is on economic laws and subjects as multimedia-laws, industrial property-rights and unfair-trade-laws. His special interestput is put on dataprotection and IT-law. Mr Flick is member of the Chamber-Board that is in charge of the permision to call oneself an "IT-Law-Specialist" (additional professional title). He is IT-laws specialist himself, a non academic title that requires the prof of aditional practical and theoretical expertise.
At university Mr Flick also experienced stage-life, when he was the drummer of a Irish-Folk-Rock-band. He played at several concerts and a CD-Recording with this band. Therefore he should be able to consider this experience in his legal advice of copyrights.
Mr. Flick also is in charge of designing and programming this web-page of the law-firm of Kanzlei Flick. He can be seen on TV in the Computer-Show di@lneues on 3sat-TV-station and on radio shows as an expert for legal questions related to the multimedia-business.
Mr Flick is member of the DGRi (German Association of Information-Studies' Laws), the "German Asociation for industrial property, fair-trade and copyright-laws" (GRUR) and the "data protection society of Hamburg" (HDG).
Subjects of main occupation:
Software- and IT-Laws
Electronic data processing and related transactions can raise a variety of legal problems. This is even more true as, for example, software and hardware often require both parties -user and vendor- to work on the same high level of technical knowledge with respect to any contract and project. Often enough this leads to a gap of understanding or errors in contracts that will often only be discovered when it is too late. Computer Law is an area of law that affects mainly the civil law, but also public law, especially criminal law may aply.
The legal consulting in computer law generally covers the areas of:
• Software and hardware purchase
• Contracts for individual software
• project contracts for software
• Cloud Computing
• Software distribution agreements
• Licensing of software
• Warranty and Guarantee
• Maintenance contracts
• Web-based applications
• Open Source Software (OSS)
• ASP contracts
• Copyright and Patent protection of software
• protection of databases
• Computer crime (for example, computer fraud)
• Data Security and Privacy
• Terms and Conditions
• Employees' Inventions
The already mentioned different level of knowledge of the Parties may mean that the purchaser of a software does not have the technical knowledge to find the right IT solution for their own needs. On the other hand the programmers often do not have the necessary know-how of the industry in which their customer operates.
There is also a bad habit in the industry that orders are issued only "on call" and written contracts rarely are taken into account. If there will be controversy about the success of a project, it must be said that sometimes no one knows precisely anymore what was actually agreed upon. In this case, a written letter of the intent of the parties is absolutely necessary for both parties. The purchaser of a software based on the agreed scope, can only proof errors according to written specifications, that software is flawed and he may require rectification, price-reduction, cancellation or compensation. The programmer however for example can demonstrate, that the client has not fulfilled certain obligations to cooperate by a documentation or specifications and that he himself is not in delay with his performance.
Data-Protection Laws
Data protection law in the modern information society takes on an ever more important role. Initially seen as an obstacle to a global boom industry , this area of law has become more and more an important roadmap for new ways of dealing with privacy issues. Because above all the internet users have developed an increasing flair and interest in what is happening with their datawhen browsing the internet.
One can gain a first overview by reading the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) which hopefully will be renewed by an EU-wide-Data-Protection Law by 2014. After that, the principle is that all processing of personal data is prohibited, unless a statute gives the processing unit a permission or there is a consent of the affected person.
An important aspect of data protection is data security. According to some study at least a significant share of attacks on corporate data does not come from outside but from the inside of companies. However unauthorized data access or data stealing is often not even recognized as an attack. Without security of computers and networks used in the automated data-processing privacy and security is absolutely impossible. The technical changes are progressing rapidly, the security market therefore must be constantly monitored, new concepts may need to be worked out. It is important to know that the subsequent change of a security concept is much more effort than just the analysis and implementation of the security requirement.
For the implementation of data protection in companies in the so-called Operational Data Protection Supervisor. Certain businesses must always be ordered data protection officer according to § 4f Section 1 a BDSG. If these special conditions are not met , the obligation of the appointment of an external data protection officer depends on the number of employees, who are ocupied with the processing of personal data.
Privacy issues should not be underestimated. In addition to considerable loss of image a violation of statutory provisions can even constitute a criminal offense or substantial monetary penalties. The supervisory authority may grant specific instructions for violations. In any case, one might just violate the privacy rights of an important person, namely that of your regular customers. However, a violation of his right to informational self-determination may result in not only end the customer relationship but also may lead to claims of compensation. Again, you should take early legal advice to avoid such mistakes.
Commercial Laws
The term business law is the generic term for all legal matters relating to the company and the commercial dealings. The range of issues and problems are broad. Examples are:
Socio-legal problems, employments laws, the legal form of a company, the protection of tangible and intangible property of a company that contracts with both its own employees and with customers and suppliers, debt collection, intra-EU trade in goods and services, etc.
Our range of services as part of our Business Law therefore extends in particular to the following areas:
• tendering of contracts
• business contracts
• Terms and Conditions
• Start-up
• questions of employment
• Rental of Commercial Space
• Recovery of debts
• Warranty and Guarantee
• Intellectual Property Law
• Competition Law
• Company Law
• Business succession
• e-commerce
Core elements of competition laws is the Law against Unfair Trade (UWG ) and the Act against Restraints of Competition (GWB). Together these laws are supposed to grant a fair coexistence between competing companies and at the same time guarantee and promote competition.
Especially in the scope of this law there like no other jurisdiction there has developed a comprehensive casuistry (case law), which divides the UWG in different case groups, which have been sorted out in the latest update of the law. For the layman this legal casuistry is hard to overlook, but is ultimately all about the question of what to in § 3 UWG competition, "against good morals" mean.
Problems occur mainly on the field of advertising. Comparative advertising considered , especially since the Supreme Court has allowed comparing advertisements to a certain degree, entrepreneurs try to push back the legal limits of the permissible. After the abolition of law on discounts and free gifts this problem has been exacerbated because commonly since the erroneous opinion is that any kind of discounts and allowances is permitted .
Competitors and so-called "associations for the protection of fair competition" are just waiting there in order to file a warning letter because of breaches of competition law and to charge "violator" with considerable legal fees and court costs.
It is therefore advisable to have the advertisement or promotions checked on its competitive admissibility first before "going online".
In times of modern digital reproduction techniques and global networking of communications intellectual property law get more and more importance because the effective protection of intellectual property is becoming increasingly difficult. By appropriate contractual provisions, the originator should be able to convert the fruits of his labor in hard cash, even if the work is protected by the copyright laws. In order to continue to harvest these fruits, it needs a consistent pursuit of violations of any kind
At the same time the protection of their own intellectual property and the right way to deal with the rights of others for their own purposes is also very important. When in doubt, whether rights are affected, not exclusively or for any private use of works, let it be music, movies, photos , text, graphics or software - one has to obtain the rights from the author. Otherwise, you can make yourself liable for damages and even punishable.
We offer focused advice for:
- Software projects
- Website solutions
- Promotions and Advertisng campaigns
- Patent rights, copy rights, design rights, trademarks