2020 – a crazy year in many areas, also in the handpan universe

This year 2020 is undoubtedly a ‘very special’ one. Thats evident in many areas .

COVID has changed the world, and many of the things that have happened in the past few months were unimaginable until recently. Since we are still in the middle of this ‘COVID process‘, we cannot even estimate today where all these changes will lead us. Socially, economically and also psychologically …
Life is change – always and in many areas. But in times like these, this ‘law of life’ becomes very intense and clearly perceptible …..

But also outside of the “COVID stage”, things are happening this year, that are similarly confusing and where the final impact cannot be assessed any more…

Pretty much everyone in the ‘Pantam/Handpan scene’ knows that there is a never-resolved conflict between PANart and the handpan manufacturers, dealers and players. This topic has become visible again and again in recent years – mostly when PANart complained manufacturers.
For some time now it has been observed that PANart has implemented its strategy regarding ‘protection of intellectual property’.
They have started suing a few distributors / manufacturers with this new strategy – and these ‘tests’ have been successful. So it is only logical (from PANart) that after these successful ‘test balloons‘, the next, but now larger, retailer was targeted.

For me personally it was no surprise at all when I heard about the result of the process (held in Germany / Hamburg). Even before the trial, I had the feeling that PANart is incomparably better prepared and more professional in this negotiation than the defendant. Unfortunately my feeling has been confirmed.

Since PANart now was publishing the original court judgment (not yet legally binding – there is still the possibility of appeal), now all the details are visible. For everyone !

So now, for all really interested in this theme it is possible, to analyze PANart’s arguments and also the ‘opposite view’ down to the last detail – and perhaps even understand them.
The only restriction is that the original court document (48 pages) is only available in german language. Since German is my mother tongue, I can fortunately read the original document and understand it without restriction. I don’t rate my english well enough to be able to produce a meaningful translation.

My recommendation to the Handpan (Makers) community is to have this document professionally translated – in order to be a little better prepared for the future in a dispute with PANart.

At the moment it seems that PANart has all the trumps in this dispute in its hands. From a purely legal point of view, it can now be assessed as realistic that PANart will be able to successfully take action against anyone who offers handpans publicly, who does business with handpans (workshops, lessons, books, …) or who produces handpans. The likelihood that PANart will win all of these processes without any problems is very likely imo ……

So yes, this year 2020 will not be easy to forget….