Court case survived

So now I have the first - and hopefully last - court case of my life behind me.

Negative

- The judge had obviously hardly prepared herself and did not know the facts. The trainee lawyer, who - according to the judge - had dealt intensively with the case, almost fell asleep.

- The judge occasionally cut off my lawyer and me. That was unpleasant.

- The other party claimed that they had not seen the copyright notice. And assumed that we had added it later. The judge took this down on the record without asking for evidence.

- The judge said that the licence terms of Photocase, where we had purchased the licence, were badly worded - and, if they are not worded more clearly, will probably give rise to legal disputes in the future.

Positive

- I slept well. After the tension beforehand, that's not a matter of course.

- The judge clearly recognised that the image had a copyright notice. That settles 50% of the case.

- The lawsuit was only about a wallpaper. Shortly before the trial, the photographer wanted to extend the claim to include the calendar, in which the image also appeared. It was clear in court that it was only about the wallpaper.

- I was able to thank the photographer again at the end for the fact that we were able to build a well with the help of her picture and supply 300 people in Afghanistan with water.

Open

The outcome. Now the judge has to read all the arguments again and make a decision. It is important to me that the decision is clear, clean and unambiguous - and of course in my favour. I have used the image correctly labelled with the correct licence - and I hope and pray that I will also be proven right in court. That will probably be the case in the next few weeks or months - until then I'll have to wait and see.