Formal Concessions with "ungeachtet"
When discussing legal matters like brand protection and trademark disputes, you will often need to state that an action proceeds "despite" or "regardless of" a specific fact. To express this formally, German uses the preposition ungeachtet.
Ungeachtet requires the noun that follows it to take the genitive case:
- For masculine and neuter nouns, the article becomes des and the noun usually adds an -s or -es (e.g., des Risikos, des Plagiats).
- For feminine nouns, the article becomes der (e.g., der Klage).
When you start a sentence with an ungeachtet phrase, that entire phrase takes up the first position. To satisfy strict German word order rules, the conjugated verb must be placed immediately after it in position two.
| Despite the risk, we want to register the brand. | Ungeachtet des Risikos wollen wir die Marke eintragen. |
| Despite the plagiarism, the product is a huge success. | Ungeachtet des Plagiats ist das Produkt ein riesiger Erfolg. |
| Despite the patent, the judge rejects the lawsuit. | Ungeachtet des Patents lehnt der Richter die Klage ab. |
Contesting Legal Claims
In trademark law (das Markenrecht), you might also need to contest or challenge a claim using the separable verb anfechten.
When using ungeachtet with feminine nouns like die Klage (the lawsuit) or die Ähnlichkeit (the similarity), remember that the feminine genitive article is der. You can also easily pair these phrases with relative clauses to build precise legal arguments.
| Despite the lawsuit to which we are reacting, we produce it. | Ungeachtet der Klage, auf die wir reagieren, produzieren wir es. |
Notice how the prefix an- from anfechten moves to the very end of the main clause in the following example, while ungeachtet der Ähnlichkeit claims the first position.
| Regardless of the similarity, we are challenging the patent legally. | Ungeachtet der Ähnlichkeit fechten wir das Patent rechtlich an. |