The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce isn’t only about monthly mixers and newsletters. It’s now also a global enforcer of lucrative intellectual property rights.

The chamber recently won a German lawsuit over unauthorized use of images of the Hollywood sign and Hollywood Walk of Fame, for which it has held the trademarks since 1978. The offender was the Mensing department store in the small German city of Dorsten – population 77,000 – which created a “Hollywood”-themed shop complete with sign and starred walk. It was the chamber’s first international court case.

The violations were first noticed by the Munich office of the chamber’s licensing agent, Global Icons in West Los Angeles. Usually a cease-and-desist letter is enough, but the German store took the fight to court, which ruled the store had to stop or pay a licensing fee.

Leron Gubler, chief executive of the chamber, said that licensing Hollywood’s glamour for advertisements, greeting cards and other uses can range from a few hundred dollars to the tens of thousands per deal. Annual fees collected are around six figures, which helps pay for maintenance of the sign and Walk of Fame as well as marketing and promotion.

“The revenue they generate helps us do our work and helps maintain these international icons for Hollywood,” he said.

The Hollywood sign is not the only local one to have a trademark. The city of Beverly Hills owns the rights to the Beverly Hills shield signs that mark city limits. And last year, Malibu officials hired a firm to license Malibu-branded products.

– Alfred Lee