Today we got an anonymous letter in the post. A nice, classic letter. It was signed by “Stefi”. Stefi sent us some stacks of printouts from Facebook that, in her opinion, prove Chanel’s trademark rights have been violated on the Facebook pages she’s printed.
Stefi most likely has a similar page and wants to wipe out her competition. And, unfortunately, Stefi fails to tell us why this should even interest us at all. She doesn’t give her full name or address, or phone number or email address, making it apparent that she has no desire to engage our firm and become our client. We don’t represent Chanel either.
Honestly, the only thing that interests me here is whether the unsolicited garbage we are sent falls under the scope of the retention obligation pursuant to Article 50 Para. 2 of the German Federal Code for the Legal Profession (Bundesrechtsanwaltsordnung).
You see, we in the legal profession are forced to keep all information sent to us by our clients for up to five years after we finished working on a case. And of course it would be quite annoying if the term ´the case´ was interpreted so generally by the relevant authorities as to include this kind of crap.
But after a call to the German Bar Association (Rechtsanwaltskammer), I find my happiness restored. The officer I spoke to agreed that no “contract” exists with these kinds of anonymous missives. And that’s why…
I’ll be throwing this stuff in the shredder from now on.
