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Preliminary Injunction.

A preliminary injunction is an effective instrument for provisionally securing claims for injunctive relief, information, and destruction, thereby preventing you from suffering disadvantages due to the significantly longer duration of standard litigation proceedings.


In some cases, preliminary injunctions can even be obtained within a matter of hours; in the fields of trademark law, patent law, copyright law, design law, and unfair competition, they serve alongside warning letters as the preferred remedy for enforcing claims for injunctive relief, information, and destruction, particularly when a warning letter elicits either no response at all or an insufficient one. In this way, legal infringements can be effectively put to an end.

Advantages of a Preliminary Injunction

The preliminary injunction procedure offers a number of very significant advantages over standard litigation proceedings:


For one, it is considerably faster since it constitutes an expedited procedure. In cases of extreme urgency – such as legal infringements occurring at trade fairs – a preliminary injunction can be obtained within just a few hours; typically, however, it can be secured within a few days, provided that the court, recognizing the exceptional urgency of the matter, issues a ruling without holding an oral hearing.


Preliminary injunction proceedings are also generally less expensive, as courts may assign lower "amounts in dispute" (values ​​in controversy) in these proceedings, taking into account the provisional nature of the expedited ruling; reductions of up to 50% are possible. Furthermore, an oral hearing is frequently not required, thereby eliminating the costs that would otherwise be incurred for such a hearing.


Moreover, the court will take immediate action without requiring an advance payment of court fees; in most cases the court will collect these costs directly from the losing party.


Furthermore, a preliminary injunction facilitates the enforcement of your other claims, for instance, your claim for monetary damages. By serving a preliminary injunction, you clearly signal to the opposing party that you are determined to enforce your rights; above all, however, it eliminates any room for debate regarding how the competent court assesses the legal situation – for this matter is conclusively settled the moment the requested expedited ruling is issued.

What can we do for you in connection with preliminary injunctions?

We assist you in cases involving the infringement of your intellectual property rights and unfair competitive practices. We enforce your claims for injunctive relief through warning letters and preliminary injunctions. This is the only way to effectively and sustainably protect your intellectual property against unlawful attacks. The costs associated with a justified preliminary injunction must be borne by the opposing party.


We offer an initial consultation at affordable and transparent fixed rates, which are credited against our fees should you decide to retain our services further.

Have you received a preliminary injunction?

If you have received a preliminary injunction yourself, it is crucial to act quickly. Please send the injunction to our law firm via email for a non-binding review. We will assess whether the court's preliminary ruling is justified and develop an appropriate defense strategy. Maybe we are already familiar with your opponent.

Contact us

Feel free to contact us by sending us an e-mail or calling us at any time. We are looking forward to helping you with any issues relating to trademark law, patent law, copyright law, design law, license agreements, distribution law and competition law.

Attorney at law Andreas Erlenhardt, LL.M.

Bar-certified specialist attorney for intellectual property



We do business all over Germany. Our Düsseldorf office is located within the district of the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Düsseldorf, to which the following communities belong: Hilden, Langenfeld, Meerbusch, Neuss, Krefeld, Kaarst, Ratingen, Mönchengladbach, Viersen, Kempen, Wuppertal, Erkrath, Haan, Remscheid, Mettmann, Solingen, Velbert, Oberhausen, Duisburg, Mülheim, Dinslaken and Kleve – we do not have offices in these cities but only in Düsseldorf. We have advised clients who are located in Berlin, Dortmund, Bremen, Köln, Dresden, Bochum, Bonn, Gelsenkirchen, Chemnitz, Kiel, Augsburg, Koblenz, Lübeck, Leverkusen, Oldenburg, Stuttgart, Osnabrück, Paderborn, Würzburg, Ulm, Offenbach, Bottrop, Hannover, Münster, Recklinghausen, Trier, Erlangen, Jena, Reutlingen, Nürnberg, Pforzheim, Göttingen, Heilbronn, Regensburg, Ingolstadt, Darmstadt, Heidelberg, Potsdam, Leipzig, Hamm, Kassel, Saarbrücken, Mainz, Freiburg, Aachen, Braunschweig, Wiesbaden, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Bielefeld, Essen, Frankfurt and München.