An official stamp is in Germany a usually rectangular, often Postwertzeichen, which is printed on paper. It serves the transport of mails (or other achievements of the post office) for the payment and by federal printering is manufactured. The publisher of German Postwertzeichen is the Federal Ministry of finances, paper Postwertzeichen. These stamps are sold then individually or in units at postal service places or to post office-official sales offices. Strictly speaking service marks are called "official stamps "(see below).

The Freimarke is the oldest and most frequent form of the stamp. and serves the post office for the payment of the transport fees. Freimarken were divided into three different kinds:

• Continuous marks
• Special marks
• Automat marks.

Service marks are stamps, which are used exclusively from authorities, agencies or offices to franking mails of the service post office. They are sold therefore not at the normal Postschalter and are not certified also for the normal Postverkehr.

Postage-due stamps spent on the accounting of the additional postage on insufficiently franked letters were never spent in Germany of the post offices (only at that time still countries bathing and Bavaria the having their own post office sovereignty spent from 1862 to 1870 own postage marks).

Around a renewed use of the stamp this will prevent from the post office cancelled. The most frequent kind of cancellation is nowadays the postmark.

The first German stamp was the black Einser, which was published on 1 November 1849 by the Kingdom of Bavaria.

Already early postal administrations met most diverse protection devices, in order to protect their stamps against falsifications. The oldest protection-took someone's measurements against post office falsifications is the water-mark.

Since 2002 it is possible in Germany to print out Postwertzeichen with the franking software STAMPIT from the Internet. By the post office reform with the accompanying softening of the letter monopoly it is recently also possible for private enterprises to publish "unofficial ""stamps ". Unofficial stamps are not of the private postal services themselves provided, sovereign marks, which are therefore also not with the print "Germany "provided. It concerns a pure Privatangelegenheit of these services. Accordingly the marks are in copyright matters protected.

Illustrate from stamps

The individual postal administrations of the world in different measure tolerate an illustrating of stamps in books or also on Internet sides. The postal administration of the has for example all illustrations including the stamps for in common-free explained. German stamps are as official work after "§ 5 exp. 1 UrhG in common-free and can be illustrated. Stamps of private offerers are not official works and are subject therefore to the patent rights of their authors.

Some countries used besides a fiber paper for their stamps.

Iurisdiction

A relevant valid judgement to the copyright of stamps of the regional court Munich (AZ 21 S 20861/82) is concerned with the illustration of the mark "five hundred year city hall Michelstadt ". The judgement answers the requirements in the negative on royalty in second instance against the Schwaneberger publishing house Munich (Michel catalog), which had published 1985 a stamp calendar and on the frontispiece of the calendar an increased casting of the stamp sketched by the plaintiff illustrated.

In the grounds it means: "The stamp sketched by the plaintiff has the copyright protection, which it first as bare draft possessed ("§ 2 exp. 1 No. 4, exp. 2 copyright law), by which admission in the Official Journal of the Federal Minister for the post office and telecommunication system in accordance with "§ 5 exp. lost 1 UrhG. "According to this judgement German stamps are as official works in common-free, thus without copyright protection and can of everyone at will be used, as far as the relevant regulations of the criminal law ("§"§ 148, 149 StGB) do not oppose that (so also of reluctantly Sternberg, GRUR 1977, 768). The comment literature sees that certainly differently. This opinion took but rejected the LG Munich to the knowledge.

Articles in category "Official stamp (Germany)"

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