Germany: protecting copyright for exclusive licensees
The high price of the licensed furniture, and the reluctance of customers to spend so much money on it, is one of the main reasons that in the past few decades some manufacturers of furniture have specialised in making and distributing copied Bauhaus furniture across Europe, for example.
Until very recently one typical model of distribution was to offer this unauthorised furniture on German-language websites directed to German customers. There would be express advice to customers that the furniture had to be bought directly in another European country, for example Italy, and then transported to Germany at the buyer’s cost. German customers would be told that a transportation service had been secured and that payment could be made to the transporter.
