In a Decision of November 13, 2013 (I ZR 143/12 "Geburtstagszug") the Supreme Court has revised its longstanding case law: Contrary to earlier case law, the standard for accepting copyright protection for applied arts is the same as that for copyright protection for fine arts. The previous case law, according to which the standard regarding applied arts was higher, has been justified based on the consideration that for applied arts also design patent protection is available. Alteration to the case law has been reasoned based on the consideration that the Design Patent Act had been reformed in 2004 according to which there is no longer a close connection between design patent protection and copyright protection.