Trade mark law

The phrase that decides whether a mark survives is die rechtserhaltende Benutzung, and its grammar is worth taking apart. Erhaltend is a present participle, the infinitive plus -d, and set before a noun it says what that noun is doing while it happens: the use is what keeps the right alive. The object of the verb, das Recht erhalten, moves in front and fuses with it into a single word. The past participle faces the other way: die eingetragene Marke is a mark to which registration has already been done. The same pair runs through the rest of the list. Prägend is the element that shapes the overall impression; geprägt would be the impression it has shaped. Both kinds decline like any adjective, so the phrase a cancellation turns on reads mangels rechtserhaltender Benutzung, for want of genuine use.