Here's what someone posted to another list yesterday. I fully agree with him
and want to suggest all fellow researchers to be careful and to follow his
advices below:
* * * * *
"I have been approached by somebody the other day who wanted some
information about a coat of arms he once saw in a book.
The person said, that he would like to get a picture of it and frame it.
Here is in a nutshell what I told him:
Be very careful with companies which offer you a coat of arms with your
name. German law explicitly forbids it, that somebody wears a coat of arms
which has not been given to him or his direct ancestors. The fact, that you
see your family name on it does not prove that a specific coat of arms is
actually yours. In Germany, a coat of arms has always been given to a
specific family and never to a group of various families with the same name.
Also, bearing a coat of arms does not mean that you are automatically a
noble family. Especially over the last 400 years, there have been more and
more coat of arms whose bearers are "normal" families who lived in cities
and/or villages.
For German coat of arms, there is a register, the so called "Wappenrolle"
which shows all existing and registered coat of arms.
It is still possible to create a coat of arms today. However, it has to meet
certain heraldic features and MUST be registered (hey, we're talking Germany
here 
).
I hope I did not ruin too many dreams here, but I hate to see people getting
exiting about something which actually does not belong to them...."
* * * * *
Juergen / Georges