Case Studies
The texts inserted on the web are protected by the law on copyright like all the other texts published in the traditional way, therefore the author claims, on the Internet pages, the rights as stated by the law. In particular, as the authors of the text, you have the sole right to use and modify […]
This case is rather complex. First of all, you need to properly evaluate if whatever has been achieved is, or not, a work protected by the law on copyright, or if it is simply a mere compilation with very little creation. If the made pages are really simple and anyone could make them without any […]
The idea of making an Internet site offering a particular service cannot be protected as the idea per se, whilst it is surely possible to get exclusive rights over the type of site that will be created, preventing others to reproduce the graphics, texts and the main setting-outs. Besides, in this specific case, it appears […]
The law on copyright, following the modification made by the regulation n. 518/1992 first and the law 248/2000 afterwards, undoubtedly protects the programs for the computer, this beyond any discussions about their possible patenting. So, if a firm has made an innovative programme, feels that the one of a competitor is similar, can surely go […]
Considering that, obviously, two Internet sites having the same subject or the same service can co-exist, as it is not possible to claim the exclusivity on the type of dealt business, the main problem is to evaluate if in effect the two sites have been copied one from the other as there are no parameters […]
The Internet site, if innovative and original, must be considered an intellectual work and, as such, is protected by the law on copyright. Without getting into the merit of judicial complex discussions related to the type of right emerging from the site as is, it is correct to say that the publishing of a text […]
There are a lot of disserting opinions over the link. This consists in a cross-reference, from one Internet page to another page of the web, allowing the user to easily move in the web from one space to another. However, even though this is a technical tool necessary to the navigation, in fact this operates […]
The regulation on trademarks, unlike the one on patents, does not control the registration of company marks by employees, as the mark is commercial to be used by a company and if this use does not happen within a certain period of time, whoever has registered it loses all the rights over it. In this […]
The question related to the works created on commission is very controversial and, usually, the only solution to establish what are the actual rights of the parties is the interpretation of the contract agreed between them. Therefore, it is always advisable to write the various agreements so that compensation and ways of exploitation of the […]
The problem in this case refers to the relation between a sign registered as a trademark and others registered at a prior date. The law on copyright ex art n. 100, shields the name of a magazine, therefore nobody can use that same name for other editorial products until that name is used and for […]
The trademark’s owner has the sole right to sell products indicated with a certain mark in the country where he has got the exclusivity. Therefore, if it is known that in Italy the right to a certain mark is of competence to a certain firm, only this latter can sell the specific products. However, there […]
The calendars are considered protected by the law on copyright, like the catalogues, even though they are not expressly included in the list of protected works, list not considered wholly unconditional. Not only the contents of the calendar is protected, meaning the photographs and the particular graphic, but also the structure as a whole if […]
The author of a work of art, including a painting, can claim copyright on it, therefore, to be able to use it, you need to first ask his authorisation. This must be clearly requested and, almost always, it is granted upon a payment to be given directly to the author. The above said right lasts […]
The choice of the transferral or not of the patent depends mainly on the financial and commercial evaluation rather than the juridical one, but, usually, who forms a company to exploit a patent, must at least be able to use it in some way, otherwise there is no point. To allow the company to be […]
The use of a musical piece from Internet, as from any other place, is not possible without first having gotten the authorisation of those claiming their rights. Really the SIAE is the only body where one can turn to as the situation could become very complex according to the type of song one wants to […]
There are some technical expedients making downloading photographs from Internet difficult, or at least inconvenient. Amongst these systems there are electronic marks, with which a kind of electronic watermark is affixed to the photos so to make them easily traceable every time someone uses them illicitly. However, even without resorting to these measures, it deserves […]
The ownership of a registered trademark, in effect, gives the possibility to prevent others using that same name in the correspondence and in any other type of commercial use, including the use on Internet. With reference to this there are many sentences confirming this statement and only three are of different opinion, therefore, by legally […]
By now almost constantly the judges decide the cases regarding the domain names by applying, in an analogue way, the trademarks regulation and considering them distinctive marks even though, in most cases, untypical. Considering this, the fear related to the risks we might incur or the disadvantages we could have, registering the domain as a […]
The domain names ending with “.it” (i.e. Ferrari.it) get assigned by the Italian Register without checking-up for any pre-existing marks similar or identical to the requested name. Therefore it is not at all “strange” that there is a domain name identical to a registered trademark, in fact these situations often arise. To evaluate whether there […]
Surely the used name to distinguish an Internet site can validly be registered as a trademark. As the site is all in Italian, the advisable thing to do is to proceed with the trademark registration in Italy, because the trademark rights are important, not due to the place where the domain was acquired, but rather […]
There could really be a possibility that the firm could demand in its favour the registered domains, but to establish this we need to examine the situation carefully. First of all it is necessary knowing the nature of the names of the used games. If these are generic names and of common use, for example […]
The granting of the patent is not essential for the production of the object. There are many items being produced without having requested any patent, as this is not a certificate enabling the production, but a document for the prevention against others manufacturing the same invention. As a matter of fact, the same granting of […]
After having deposited the patent application, and even before it gets granted, the patent holder is protected from the legal point of view to all effects. It is true that the application remains secret for a minimal period of 90 days and maximum of 18 months, but this does not mean that the requestor has […]
With the registration at the SIAE of an inedited work we do not make a deposit of a patent application, but we simply make a deposit of a creation already protected as is according to the law on copyright, for the purpose of having a determined date testifying the work creation by certain authors at […]
It is very difficult to protect this kind of idea as it is not realised as a tangible work, but with the purpose of getting an entertainment result. Even though they are not specifically covered by this law, games are usually deposited at the SIAE in order to claim ownership, like literary works, records, drawings. […]
The question of the open source is more complex than it has been described even though there is some truth in these statements. With the definition of “open source” we indicate those programs distributed with the “open” code, meaning the source code that can be read and eventually improved by anyone. A programme of this […]
In such cases, the owner of the economical rights of exploitation of the programme is the client commissioning the work and who paid the programmer for it. If the client restricts himself to describing what he wants, but does not participate to the programming, I don’t think he can be considered a co-author, unless his […]
The best kind of protection for an imaginary character, is the deposit at the SIAE, at the section for inedited work, as this is what it is and therefore it gets protected by the copyright. To this, another protection can be added by registering the name of the character as a trademark, which plays a […]
An intellectual work, such as a book, is automatically protected by the regulation on copyright, which guarantees, to whoever makes it, both the right of economical exploitation and the moral right to be recognised as the author. However, in order to claim these rights, you must actually have created the book, it is insufficient to […]
The copyright over a written work lasts for the whole life of the author and, upon the heirs, for seventy years after his death, after which anyone could use the writing, make copies of it and reproduce it in any form he prefers. In this specific case, the copyright of the original author have indeed […]
Undoubtedly it is possible to use the photograph in an exclusive way, protected by the law on copyright. The original and creative images benefit of an appropriate protection and the authors can claim all rights simply by applying on t-shirts, under the photo, the text “copyright by” followed by the name of the owner’s rights, […]
The first thing to do is to analyse if what you want to realise is to be considered just a technical job or could be defined as an intellectual work. In the first case, or rather if your work consists only in the reproduction of certain data in a certain format and animate them by […]
The protection of modules, or better known as the “form” often used for the development of normal business activities, is rather uncertain. For some kind of prescribed forms, made up mainly by tables, schemes and other subdivisions of pages to be used, and also for the billings with which we pay taxes and other utilities, […]
Painting is an artistic business and the law on copyright automatically protects the finished works without having to fulfil anything. The only problem that may arise could be demonstrating of actually being the authors of it, problem which normally can be overcome by putting a signature, which is unique in every person. Some painters, though, […]
This incident is rather unpleasant and it seems to me that the Webmaster has exceeded in his behaviour. A story, mainly as this was already published on the Web, benefits from the protection provided by the law on copyright that recognizes the author both a moral and financial right of the work exploitation. As a […]
The substantial problem of this prospected situation lays in the fact that there is not a true and proper protection on “ideas”, so intended as intuitions, projects, initiatives that do not become concrete in a technical solution. According to the law, in fact, anybody can appreciate and use the ideas. But every time the ideas […]
The fact of having “painted” a deck of cards may involve different types of protection according to how the situation is interpreted. If the decoration is made on cards already existent, the decorative work realized is artistic and it can be protected by the law on copyright especially if the manual skill prevails on the […]
Actually the good thing to do is patenting a model, not only in its technical components but also in its design if it has a particular relevance. The patent is the only instrument allowing to efficiently protect your products even if, due to its territoriality, it cannot protect in Taiwan unless the company sells in […]
In general jewels such as rings or necklaces or others, are registered as model as to obtain the exclusive on its use in that shape. This type of registration however allows the protection of the design as it is realized and is limited to the protection of the aspect of the product without going into […]
The progress of Internet and creation of new business related to it generates several problems to traders and legal representatives, forced to interpret, and adapting the regulations not born for the technological world of the computers. In fact, before introducing a trademark on Internet, it is prudent to do an international novelty search, ensuring nobody […]
The law automatically protects the name of a newspaper by the copyright, without the need of doing anything in particular, as the art. 100 provides that “the name of a newspaper, magazines or other periodical publications cannot be reproduced for other work of the same kind or character, unless two years have passed from the […]
Registering the geographical origin as a trademark of a company is quite clearly prohibited by the art.13 of the Industrial Property Code. Such a prohibition though, is not entirely absolute, in the sense that it is possible registering a geographical name as a trademark that, in relation to the product or service for which the […]
If the name of a heading is particularly well known, you could not at all proceed with registering it as a mark because of its prestige. However, even if this was not the case, registering the possible trademark would not shield you from any risks, and, above all, you would not automatically gain the right […]
If the trademark is made up by words, at the time when we want to apply for registration, we need to indicate exactly the type of word or words we want protected. This question shows us two aspects of difficulty: the first related to the possibility of protecting in a country a phrase written in […]
Undoubtedly, when starting a business, the names choice strategically represents the most important moment, and it is even more important having the guarantee of being the only one using them. With reference to the first question, during the last years there have been more and more phrases being registered, besides words, which identify a product […]
This choice depends entirely upon the type of protection required and the current status of the trademark. Obviously the cost of the national trademark is less than the international one, and it enables, usually, to get the registration in less time. However, if there is an interest also in other countries, then the international trademark […]
Before registration it is a good rule to do a proper inquiry to ensure that no rights by other parties exist on the chosen name. For this type of search the data banks can be consulted, some are available to the public, some are more complex to be checked and must be paid. The first […]
To evaluate the trademark status, it is first of all essential to know the deposit date from which all rights in favour of the owner will be starting, and also the terms for the subsequent renewals. The maximum duration of a mark is 10 years, after which it can be renewed for a further period […]
The Art. n. 7 of the Industrial Property Code states that “all new signs that can be graphically represented” can be object for a trademark, particularly words, drawings, letters, numbers, sounds, shape of a product or its packaging. Therefore, the particular graphic used to write a word, even if ordinary, is object not so much […]
The protection of a movie prize and above all its related prize-giving show, is entrusted to two different instruments. First of all, regarding the denomination of the prize-giving show, i.e. “The Cannes cinema festival”, “The Stand prize”, “Viareggio Carnival”, or other similar, the protection comes from the part dedicated to the trademarks of the Industrial […]
A trademark owner can prevent others using the same or similar for the same class of products or alike, but, normally, the use of that name is allowed for any other very different products. In our case, though, it is a different kind of problem, as we want to use a well renowned mark. The […]
It is true that the Italian regulation on patents forces the Italian residents to file the patent applications for the inventions in our country, and to wait a period of no less than three months before it can be extended abroad. This is a rule to protect the interests, mainly military ones, of the State […]
First of all it is necessary to understand the actual invented system and, above all, if it is only an idea or if it is clear how it should be made. In this second instance, it is already possible to file a patent application related to the system in its entirety, describing in detail its […]
If, in fact, there are patents prior to a competitor preceding his invention, then there really is a possibility of asking to have it annulled as one of the essential requisites (the novelty) necessary for the granting, is missing. It is not surprising that in Italy the patent has been granted, as in our country […]
Usually the holder of a patent does not have to inform others of the existence of it and can start a lawsuit for infringement without notifying anybody. This happens because patents are public documents that, in theory, everyone can see; therefore whoever copies a patented item commits an illegal action, whether he was aware or […]
It is really a good rule to deposit patents of your own innovative objects before presenting them to the public, but unfortunately not everybody does this, often preferring to first evaluate if the market has an interest for it, and only deciding to patent it if this is positive, but by then is not always […]
It is very strange that the European Patent Office has sent no information after an application for a European patent in 1995. Once filed the application, this must be followed in its track, often the office sends notifications and above all, the annual fees maintaining the validity must be paid. Particularly, you must have received […]
An invention to be properly patented must be new and therefore must never have been produced, commercialized or even just presented to the public before the patent application has been filed. On the contrary, the patent loses its validity and anyone could produce it. Your friend was probably referring to this particular instance, but before […]
The weight of the goods is a feature that cannot be considered for an industrial right, whether it is a patent or any other kind. Admitting this sort of protection would mean precluding anybody else manufacturing the same object with the identical weight, but using different components and therefore, this would constitute a regime of […]
It is perfectly understandable that who has invented something may be concerned about the discovery that someone else might have beaten him to it by a flash. Obviously it is better proceeding with the patent application as soon as possible, but it is sensible to have a clear idea on what we want to protect. […]
Before purchasing a patent it would be wise to do the necessary verification, as a simple declaration given by the inventor is of very small importance. Of course this could be useful to act against him in case of bad faith or false information, but it would not resolve the risk of being unable to […]
If we handover a patent it means that we have “sold” it to a company or private person which now becomes effectively the owner. In such case all the related responsibilities, including payment of the annual fees, are up to the new owner and not the original requestor who has nothing more to do with […]
Up until 2001 and particularly at the enactment of Rule n. 383 of the 18th October 2001 introduced in the Art 24 b. of the Inventions Ruling in force then, the invention realized by a worker who was employed as a researcher, generally belonged to the firm employing and paying him a monthly salary. However, […]