A Supermodel Manager's Blogging Brouhaha

An ugly brouhaha is taking place in Germany right now between Heidi Klum's father and manager, Günther Klum, and blogger Patrick Breitenbach surrounding the use of the supermodel's name in Breitenbach's Werbeblogger.

This dispute originated with Breitenbach's November 30, 2004 post titled Heidi Klum wird McHottie (Heidi Klum becomes a McHottie), based in part on Adrants' Heidi Klum Joins McDonald's as McHottie post. A year later, on December 30, 2005, Breitenbach apparently received an e-mail stating (my translation),

"Since the name "Heidi Klum" is legally protected, I am requesting that you remove the name from your URL and cease using it for advertising/promotional purposes. You have until January 2, 2006 to comply. I request your understanding.

mfg
Günther Klum
www.heidiklum.com"

According to journalist Thomas Knüwer and his Handelsblatt Weblog, Indiskretion Ehrensache, the e-mails received by Breitenbach were sent by Günther Klum.

Complementary chronologies of the entire exchange between Breitenback and Klum, along with blog and print media coverage, can be found below (note: in the United States dates are in month/day/year order, while in Germany they are in day/month/year order).

• Werbeblogger (with the Werbeblogger feed here) chronology and posting of the actual e-mails, in German and partly in English.
• Evy and Stefan Evertz's hirnrinde.de chronology, in German.
• Thorsten Georgi's Problematic.net containing a list of referencing links, in German.
• Timo Kissing's lino chronology, in English.
• Breitenbach's Offener Brief an Heidi Klum, in German, with an English translation, An Open Letter to Heidi Klum, available on his site (full disclosure: given the growing interest about this issue among English-speaking media, I translated Breitenbach's original letter; the translation was not posted until it passed his review and approval).

In today's Indiskretion Ehrensache post, Knüwer reports that Günther Klum sent him the following e-mail (paraphrased and translated by me),

"Mr. Breitenback is using the legally-protected name 'Heidi Klum' and the media as a springboard for free publicity. Very crafty, and why should he try to generate his own publicity when there is obviously another way. Your actions show that you too are inclined to grant him free publicity. The legal questions surrounding this matter should be answered by those with more knowledge in such issues. Let's see if Mr. Breitenback has also found in you someone who pays for his own publicity."   

In the last paragraph of his blog, Knüwer writes (my translation),

"Whoever searches for 'Heidi Klum' on Google right now (13.17 o'clock local time) will find Werbeblogger listed third and Lawblog listed tenth. The race is on; soon Werbeblogger will replace Heidi Klum's own homepage in the listing."

Finally, in the last paragraph of today's article in the German newspaper Handelsblatt, Knüwer notes (paraphrased and translated by me),

"This issue has now spread across the globe.... If these articles were published in newspapers, they would be long forgotten. But on the Internet they will exist forever." 

Comments

[Serge Cornelus]

If you were to type in 'Heidi klum' in Google now, were would the New millennium PR blog end up? Perhaps worth giving it a try. Heide Klum as SEO tool: excellent idea! ;-)

[Sam Smith]

Apologies to Steve but she's [Ms Klum] is a darn sight more attractive than my usual SEO guru

[Mag]

There are a lot of opinions against the "blogger-mafia" (and against the anti-Klum-campaign), too! f. ex. http://blog.magnusbecker.de/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=127
and http://www.magnusbeckerblog.de/heidi-klum-unterstutzt-bethanien-kinderdorf-in-bergisch-gladbach/

[Andrea Weckerle]

Mag,

Thank you for providing the links to your blog. I read you posts and the many comments on them with great interest. I suggest that anyone who is able to understand and read German go read http://blog.magnusbecker.de/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=127
for additional information on this URL-use issue.