Can copyright protected furniture be imported from abroad?
Furniture can be copyright protected. For example, the Supreme Court upheld the protectability (pdf 56 KB, in German) of Le Corbusier chairs. If you want to import copyright protected furniture from countries where the copyright protection has already expired and unlicensed manufacturing is thus permitted, the decisive point is whether they are for private use or for another purpose (such as resale). In the second case, it would be infringement of copyrights. If you order furniture over the internet, the delivery may be viewed as an illegal export on the part of the foreign trader (not as an ‘import for private use’) and the furniture would be confiscated at the border.
