Export Hit

Even in the early 20th century, associations of German emigrants in New York (USA) or Porto Allegre (Brazil), for example, regularly organised an "Oktoberfest" based on the Munich model in order to cultivate their homeland’s customs. Over time, this was also adopted by many other associations in smaller towns. In the 1980s, for example, the Bavarian Club in Orillia (Canada) hosted an Oktoberfest lasting several days with a procession, brass band music, folk dances, beer and traditional Bavarian or German food.

Today, diplomatic missions and educational institutions also organise "Oktoberfests" with individual elements of "Bavarian Gemütlichkeit" in the interest of international understanding, to represent Bavaria or the whole of Germany. Numerous companies also organise "Oktoberfests". In some cases, attempts are made to make money by imitating Munich’s successful model, as in Beijing (China), where a two-week Oktoberfest was held for the first time in 2011. Some of these are one-off PR campaigns, for example by hotel chains. All in all, there are therefore countless larger and smaller offshoots of the Oktoberfest around the world that are very popular.

The term "Oktoberfest" has therefore been a protected word mark since 2021. The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) finally had the trademark registered after having scrutinised the application for almost five years. More than twenty individual product classes are protected until 2030, including numerous souvenir items. The trademark protection enables the city of Munich to take legal action against the misuse of the folk festival and its commercial use by others.

Anja Lochbrunner