German court rejects New York Times case over Wordle rights
July 18, 2024
A German court has thrown out a case of legal action by the New York Times Company attempting to prevent a local puzzle maker from using the name "Wordle."
The publisher acquired Wordle from the original inventor in early 2022. According to the Hamburg regional court, both the New York Times and Hamburg-based puzzle maker Stefan Heine then applied for a trademark for the name "Wordle" at the same time: The publisher at European Union level, and Heine in Germany.
The court ruled on Thursday that the New York Times Company did not have prior rights over the name, and that both the EU trademark and the German trademark were of "equal seniority."
Both the New York Times and Heine are allowed to use the name "Wordle" in Germany, the court said.
Stefan Heine welcomes victory
Heine is a renowned maker of word games and other kinds of puzzles in Germany.
He supplies puzzles to more than 400 media companies companies in the print and online sector, and was also instrumental in the spread of the Sudoku number puzzle in Germany.
"Puzzles have been my passion for 29 years. I want to see good puzzles in the world, and Wordle is a lovely puzzle that is fun," Heine said after the ruling on Thursday.
He said he was not interested in the money.
"I would hope that the New York Times would now come to its senses and recognize that it will not win, or that it listens to me and understands why I did it," Heine said.
The New York Times Company bought Wordle from its inventor, Josh Wardle, for an undisclosed sum. Prior to this, the inventor had published the game for free on his personal website and had not trademarked the name.
zc/rm (dpa, AFP)
Correction: An initial version of this article stated that the New York Times had bought Wordle for a specific seven-figure sum. This has been corrected to undisclosed. The article has also been amended to reflect the fact the application for a trademark came after the purchase of Wordle by the New York Times.