He may be one of the robots, but that doesn’t mean Ralf Hütter is impervious to slights, as the makers of a charger for electronic device have discovered. Kraftwerk’s leader has brought a trademark infringement suit against the makers of the charger, named after the German word for power station – which happens to be Kraftwerk.
The makers of the charger, eZelleron, raised more than $1.5m (£1m) on Kickstarter to develop the portable power plant, which it says takes mere seconds to recharge and can provide weeks of power for mobile devices. However, Hütter owns a wide-ranging trademark on the Kraftwerk brand name, which – the Hollywood Reporter says – covers “video and optical data in the field of home entertainment”.
Hütter’s complaint reads: “Defendant is taking advance orders for the KRAFTWERK charging device. Therefore, consumers are likely to assume that there is a connection, association, or relationship between the famous electronic music band and a charger for portable musical-playing devices.”
Although eZelleron is based in Dresden, the case is being heard in Delaware in the US where it is incorporated. The US state is host to many corporations because of its favourable incorporation laws. A 2013 article in the Economist said some people have joked that Delaware stood for: “Dollars and Euros Laundered And Washed At Reasonable Expense.”
However, that the case will be heard in the US probably helps Hütter. It is likelier to be far harder in the US for the defendant to argue that the word Kraftwerk is in common usage as a simple description of its product.
