Lawyer for Green IP and green claims

Green IP for companies starts before the launch, not only in a dispute

Quick start: what is your matter about?

Your contact: Jean Paul P. Bohne, LL.M., MM

Partner, certified specialist lawyer for copyright and media law and for IT law (Fachanwalt für Urheber- und Medienrecht, Fachanwalt für IT-Recht).

Send Green IP enquiry

What happens after your enquiry?

After your enquiry, we will get back to you within 24 hours on working days. The first contact is free of charge. Should costs arise, we will inform you expressly in advance.

1. A short description is enough. Describe the innovation, planned claims and protection status. Evidence, applications and contracts are helpful.
2. Receipt and initial sorting. We assess the enquiry on the basis of the project described, the documents and the apparent goal. Deadlines and dates should be clearly recognisable.
3. Suitable starting point and cost range. We clarify whether an initial consultation, a service package or a specific mandate is the next step. As soon as the scope of the review is clear, we tell you the cost range – before work begins.

Typical cases from our practice

The following scenarios are abstracted and simplified. Which solution holds up always depends on the specific facts and the contractual situation.

What you will have at the end

What Green IP actually means in everyday business

Green IP is not a separate statute. It refers to the strategic linking of sustainability-related innovation, building up protective rights, evidence logic and approval of communication. In practice, the topic becomes relevant at the interface of product development, brand management, investor readiness, contracts and the defence against greenwashing allegations.

At its core, there are three questions: What should be protected, what should remain secret for the time being, and what may already be communicated externally and in what form?

Classification

• Patent law protects technical solutions, for example in energy, the circular economy, materials, software or connected green-tech systems.
• Trade mark law and design law concern names, signs, labels, packaging and visible sustainability communication.
• Trade secret protection becomes important when processes, formulations, data sets or technical details must be secured before disclosure.
• Product advertising, advertising law and competition law determine whether environmental claims may be communicated robustly.

When Green IP typically becomes relevant for a mandate

Green IP rarely becomes relevant only in a dispute. The problem usually starts earlier: at product launch, in financing rounds, before a campaign, in a pitch, with new packaging, in technology transfer talks or shortly before international expansion.

• a product is to be positioned as sustainable, recyclable, resource-saving or climate-related
• a green-tech solution is to be applied for, licensed or exploited in a cooperation
• a rebranding uses green signs, seal-like visuals or sustainability language
• an investor requires robust statements on protective rights, claims and due diligence
• marketing, product, procurement and legal work with different approval standards
• a competitor attacks environmental promises, signs or packaging design

Practical note

Constellations in which protective rights strategy and claim approval run separately become particularly expensive. Money is then invested in trade mark, design or patent, but the later external presentation does not withstand review under unfair competition law. This often leads to rebranding, replacement of advertising materials, delays or unnecessary pressure to provide evidence shortly before market entry.

Legal framework: protective rights, environmental claims and current regulation

Green IP operates on several legal levels. For environmental claims in Germany, the Act against Unfair Competition (opens in a new tab) (UWG) is decisive above all. Germany has implemented Directive (EU) 2024/825 (opens in a new tab) (“Empowering Consumers”) with the Third Act Amending the UWG (BGBl. I 2026 No. 43); the new rules on environmental claims and sustainability labels have applied since 27 September 2026. The separate Green Claims Directive (COM(2023) 166) has not yet been adopted: in June 2025 the Commission (opens in a new tab) announced its intention to withdraw the proposal, and the trilogue negotiations have been on hold since then; the proposal has not yet been formally withdrawn. For Germany, the decision of the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) on advertising with the term “klimaneutral” (climate-neutral) (opens in a new tab) also remains a central reference point.

On the protective rights side, technical inventions, signs, visible design, know-how and contract chains are relevant in parallel. That is exactly why Green IP quickly tips in the wrong direction if it is considered only from an advertising, only from a patent or only from a compliance perspective.

For signs, seals and green labels

Anyone planning a certification mark, a sustainability seal or a neutral certification logic should know the particularities of the certification mark (Gewährleistungsmarke) at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (opens in a new tab). The neutrality requirement is particularly important: the proprietor may generally not offer the goods or services certified by the mark itself. Not every green label model can therefore be represented as a strong or clean trade mark solution.

For green claims and anti-greenwashing

A trade mark, a patent, a design or a certificate does not replace the review of whether a specific sustainability claim is actually sound in the market. What remains decisive is the content of the statement, the evidence, the medium, the eye-catcher, the context and the question of what the target audience understands.

Important note

Green IP is not a licence for green imagery or strong environmental terms. Protective rights law and communication law run side by side. Anyone who does not combine both properly often creates a marketing problem instead of a competitive advantage.

The right architecture: protection path, claim review and contracts

A strong Green IP strategy begins with a sober order. First, it must be clarified what is to be protected, disclosed or kept secret at all. Then come naming and design logic, claim substantiation, exploitation structure and later reserves for conflicts.

Innovation

Patent or secrecy?

For sustainability-related technologies, the application alone is often not the right answer. Depending on the disclosure status, ease of imitation and cooperation model, protection can run via patent law, via trade secret protection or via a combined structure.

Market presence

Trade mark, design or certification logic?

For names, claims, seal-like visuals, packaging and green brand architecture, trade mark law and design law are regularly relevant. Especially with descriptive or strongly ecologically charged signs, the risk of later weakness is particularly high.

Exploitation

Licensing and technology transfer

Green-tech projects often arise in development consortia, joint ventures, white-label models or supply chains. Rights of use, improvements, audit and evidence rules, exclusivity, territories and exit scenarios then become business-critical. The relevant in-depth page is usually licensing.

International

Cooperation and visibility

For international technology partnerships, a look at WIPO GREEN (opens in a new tab) can be useful. The platform of the World Intellectual Property Organization connects providers and seekers of environment-related technologies and shows how much exploitation and transfer must be considered today.

When you need us

Green IP becomes economically relevant where protective rights, communication and market access are at stake at the same time. This page therefore sets out typical corporate situations in concrete terms.

Launch of a sustainability-related product

Review of name, packaging, claim set, protective rights position, competitive environment and approval process before market launch. Product advertising, trade mark law and competition law often come together here.

Investor readiness and due diligence

Investors ask about the level of innovation and also about robust protective rights, chains of title, claim risks and governance. Start-up advice, industrial property protection and compliance are then particularly relevant.

Cooperation, licence or white-label model

Technology, a quality system or a sustainable product concept is to be marketed jointly. Contractual rules on use, evidence, quality, improvements and allocation of liability then determine later robustness.

Attack by a competitor or association

Abmahnung (cease-and-desist letter), demand for an injunction, preliminary injunction (einstweilige Verfügung) or reputation-sensitive conflict around environmental claims, signs or product design. In such cases, the link to litigation & litigation PR is often useful.

Common misconceptions that make Green IP projects expensive

Many problems arise less from a lack of innovative strength than from the wrong order. Anyone who thinks of protection, communication and evidence separately creates unnecessary points of attack.

• A “green” trade mark will be strong simply because it fits the sustainability strategy well.
• An environmental claim can be substantiated later if necessary. For the launch, a plausible narrative is enough at first.
• A seal, a QR code or a certification replaces the independent legal review of the specific statement.
• A patent application automatically also secures the later external presentation and sales arguments.
• Cooperation and licence agreements can only be written once the technology is fully market-ready.
• Green IP is primarily a marketing or primarily a patent topic and not at the same time a topic for legal, product, procurement and management.

Risk

Especially with platform sales, international roll-out, investor-driven growth and highly visible sustainability campaigns, such misconceptions very quickly affect the market. Legal risks then rise, and so do the operational costs of correction, replacement and internal realignment.

Related in-depth pages for specific individual questions

If individual sub-questions need to be examined in more depth, the existing ITMR pages are closer in subject matter. This keeps Green IP focused on the strategically correct overall perspective.

Product advertising & green claimsFor the specific review of environmental promises, claim substantiation, eye-catchers, context and evidence logic.

• Competition law For Abmahnung (cease-and-desist letter), injunctions, market attacks and the contentious side of greenwashing conflicts.
• Advertising law For the broader classification of environment-related communication in campaigns, sales and advertising systems.
• Patent law For technical innovations, green-tech protection, filing strategy, exploitation and conflicts.
• Trade mark law For sign strategy, green trade marks, rebranding, opposition, enforcement and defence.
• Design law For packaging, visible product design, interface elements and characteristic sustainability visuals.
• Trade secret protection For know-how, formulations, processes, data sets and preliminary stages before application or disclosure.
• Licensing For technology transfer, cooperation models, white label, chains of title and exit clauses.
• BGH on “klimaneutral” For the case-law-based classification by the Federal Court of Justice and the consequences for environmental claims.

LG Karlsruhe on “klimaneutral”For the practical line of development in German case law before and after the clarification by the highest court.

Making Green IP commercially usable without pushing aside claim risks

When protective rights, sustainability communication and conflict management are relevant at the same time, a clear legal line is needed instead of a general overview. ITMR supports companies in setting up Green IP robustly, making it commercially exploitable and keeping critical communication risks manageable at an early stage.

The obvious contacts at ITMR are Jean Paul P. Bohne, LL.M., MM for overarching Green IP strategy and Emma-Marie Kürsch for questions related to trade marks, designs and competition in industrial property protection.

Jean Paul P. Bohne, LL.M., MM

Overarching Green IP strategy, industrial property protection, digital business models, contract and conflict logic.

Emma-Marie Kürsch

Trade mark law, design law, competition law and related communication and enforcement topics.

Continue to Request advice on Green IP and Explore industrial property protection.

Key terms

Green IP

Linking sustainable innovation with intellectual property and sustainability communication.

Green claim

Environmental or sustainability statement in advertising.

Greenwashing

Misleading environmental advertising.

Gewährleistungsmarke

Certification mark: a trade mark for neutral test and quality labels.

These terms explain the language used on this page. What matters is always the specific individual case.

Provisions and reliable sources

The following statutory provisions and regulations are cited on this page.

Articles on green claims and environmental advertising

These articles go deeper into the rules for environment-related advertising that are central to Green IP.

Frequently asked questions about Green IP

The following answers provide a sound initial framework. For the assessment of the individual case, product, market, disclosure status, evidence, target territories and communication context remain decisive.

Making Green IP commercially usable