How a Düsseldorf court reconciled EU and German copyright doctrine in a dispute over guitar replicas By Carolin Thurner, Attorney-at-Law at BARDEHLE PAGENBERG When the CJEU handed down its landmark Mio/konektra ruling on 4 December 2025 (joined Cases C-580/23 and C-795/23), it reshaped the legal landscape for copyright in works of applied art — but left open how national courts would apply those principles in practice. Just weeks later, the Regional Court of Düsseldorf provided the first answer. In a default judgment of 22 December 2025 (14c O 64/25), the court held that the body of the iconic Fender Stratocaster...