Martini Manna has been accredited with the S.I.A.C., the online Anti-Counterfeiting Information System of the Guardia di Finanza (the Italian Tax & Customs police force).

The Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante della privacy) has issued new rules for processing the data of individuals who use so-called mobile remote payment services via smartphone, tablet or PC. The regulation (General order on the processing of personal data in the context of mobile remote payment services) was issued after a public consultation and was published in the Official Journal of the Italian Republic on 16 June 2014.

By judgment of 12 June 2014 in Case T-286/2009, the General Court of the European Union (“EGC”) dismissed Intel’s appeal against the decision of 13 May 2009, by which the European Commission (“EC”) had imposed a fine of EUR 1.06 billion on Intel for anticompetitive practices. Specifically, the penalty was linked to Intel’s conduct between 2002 and 2007, considered capable of infringing Article 82 of the EC treaty and Article 54 of the Agreement on the European Economic Area, allegedly at the expense of its rival, AMD.

A recent ruling of the Milan IP Court in a patent litigation (which we already examined from a different perspective here) contains some interesting statements on the scope of infringement claims, the reach of court injunctions and the extent of damages. We examine them briefly below, keeping in mind that the patent owner in the case in hand had requested that damages be set on the basis of the infringer’s profits:

The Italian Communication Authority, AGCOM (Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni) has ordered “mere conduit” service providers that operate in Italian territory to disable access to the website torrentvia.com (decision No. 51/14/CSP).

On 19 June the Business Chamber of the Court of Milan issued a ruling on patents focusing on the suspension of validity and infringement proceedings pending appeal against the grant of a patent.

A recent ruling of the IP Court of Milan (Judgment no. 7708/2014, published on 11/06/2014) provides a few insights on the issue of patent limitations in the course of proceedings before Italian courts under Article 79 paragraph 3 of the Italian IP Code (as amended in 2010 to mirror provisions in Article 138 of the EPC). Article 79 paragraph 3 gives patent holders the right to submit to the Court, in the course of validity proceedings, amendments to disputed patent claims “within the limits of the patent application as originally filed and not extending the scope of protection conferred by the patent as granted”.

On 5 June 2014, the European Court of Justice, Fourth Chamber, issued a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of Article 5 of Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society.

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.