An invention made by an independent contractor, if that contractor was hired to invent, belongs to the client. This principle, which is already well established in Italian case-law, has been confirmed by the IP Court of Milan in recent judgment no. 6964/2014.

A technical text can be protected from unauthorised use under copyright laws. In fact, the lower degree of freedom enjoined by the author may make it easier to obtain copyright protection.

The Italian Data Protection Authority (“Garante della privacy”) has recently issued a decision on practical ways to provide mandatory information and acquire consent for the use of cookies on websites.

Over the last few years various legal cases, both at international and national (Italian) level, dealt with the liability of Internet Service Providers (“ISP”) for the illegal conduct of the service users.

Martini Manna and its partners have been listed in the 2014 edition of the IAM Patent 1000 – The World’s Leading Patent Practitioners guide as top patent practitioners in the Italian jurisdiction.

A brokerage firm may not lawfully use information relating to the customers of its principal after the termination of the agency relationship, according to a recent ruling of the IP Court of Milan.

Starting on 13 June, amendments to the Italian Consumer Code (Legislative Decree 206/2005) introduced by Legislative Decree 21/2014 will come into force, implementing Directive 2011/83/EU.

On 5 May 2014 the Italian Communication Regulatory Authority (hereinafter “Authority”) published four orders on its website following applications that had been filed a few weeks earlier under the new Regulation on the protection of copyright on electronic communications networks, which entered into force on 31 March 2014.

Ruling in a court case centred around the component of a complex product, the IP Court of Bologna, partially contradicting its own appointed expert, made some interesting points on the concept of the “informed user” in design matters.

Legislative Decree n. 22 of February  2014 published on 11 March 2014, adopting the directive 2011/77/EU which amends the term of protection for copyright and certain related rights, modifies some of the articles of the Italian Copyright Law n. 633/1941 (“ICL”). Below is a summary of the main changes introduced by the decree.

On 4 March the Business Court of Milan (Judges Ms Tavassi, Ms Gandolfi and Mr Marangoni) published a judgment in a European patent infringement case in which the court was required to assess the weight of the discrepancy between the text of a European patent and the Italian translation enforced therein.

In joined cases C-293/12 and C-594/12, the ECJ was called upon to examine the validity of Directive 24/2006 concerning the retention of data that are generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks.

In a judgment published on 1 April, the Business Court of Milan (Judges Ms Tavassi, Ms Giani and Ms Gandolfi) ruled on the fair compensation of the author of a film who assigned the relevant broadcasting rights to the producer of the same work .

The Supreme Court of the Netherlands requested a preliminary ruling from the ECJ (case C-435/12) on the interpretation of art. 5 of the Directive 2001/29/CE on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society.

With sentence no. 2311/14, issued on 17 February 2014 in case no. 37937/11, the Milan IP Court (Judges Mrs. Tavassi, Mr. Perrotti and Mrs. Gandolfi) decided in favour of Cassina S.p.a. in proceedings on copyright infringement and unfair competition commenced by Cassina against High Tech s.r.l. The subject matter of the dispute related to the copies of the works by Le Corbusier known as LC1, LC2 and LC4, marketed by High Tech in the absence of any authorisation by Cassina, i.e. the exclusive copyright holder.

With a recent decision (Judgment no. 1143/2014 ) concerning the jurisdiction of the Italian courts with respect to non-Italian fractions of European patents, the IP Court of Milan seems to depart from the position expressed by the Supreme Court in its late 2013 reversal on the so-called Italian Torpedo

In Italy’s IP courts, an alleged infringer can seek an interim declaratory judgment within the framework of summary, fast-track proceedings, in order to swiftly prevent or stop the hostile use of a patent by a competitor.

By order of 21 February 2014, the IP court of Milan, judge Ms. Giani, dealt with the copyright protection of literary books, retracing the key principles of the relevant copyright legislation.

For the second consecutive year, Silhouette, the world leading premium rimless eyewear company based in Austria, assisted by our law firm, successfully enforced its IP rights at the International Optics MIDO Fair which took place in Milan from 1 to 3 March.

A few weeks after the Florence Courts of Assizes, in yet another twist in a legal case that’s been going on for seven years, found Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito guilty of the murder of Meredith Kercher, another ruling on the same case was filed in Milan, well away from the spotlight.