The Milan IP Court recently dealt with the competitive effects of the violation of tax rules on “permanent establishment” in Italy (order of 16.11.2015, Judge Mrs Gandolfi).

With ruling no. 3575/2015 of 21 October 2015, the Company Matters division of the Florence District Court (whose jurisdiction encompasses IP matters) awarded a major victory to Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, a trading association representing the interests of grape growers and winemakers engaged in the production of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, a wine originated in the area of Montepulciano, near Siena.

On 28 October, the IP Court of Milan (Business Chamber “A”) issued an interesting ruling (no. 2048/2015) on a topic of no frequent discussion: the employee’s right to compensation for the inventions realised by him/her in the execution of his/her work, where no specific salary was agreed for such inventive activity.

In a decision published in August 2015, the second Division of the Italian Patent and Trademark Office (UIBM) upheld the opposition filed by Riva S.p.A., a historic Italian company active in the field of luxury yachting, against the application for the Italian figurative trademark “Diva Yachts”, filed in 2012 by a Chinese competitor.

With sentence no. 11416/15 of 13 October, the IP Court of Milan (Business Chamber “A”) granted copyright protection to the interior design of the shops of the known cosmetics chain Kiko. The Court held that the relevant project was protected under art. 2(5) of the Italian Copyright Law (“ICL”), according to which “architectural designs and works” enjoy copyright protection.

The Italian Antitrust Authority (AGCM) punished Techmania S.r.l., a tech e-commerce company – already penalised by the Authority in the past – having found it in breach of Articles 20, 24, 25(d) and 61 of the Italian Consumer Code, which deal with the prohibition of unfair and aggressive commercial practices against consumers (including the imposition of barriers by the trader to the exercise of consumers’ contractual rights) and grant consumers the right to terminate the contract and receive reimbursement if goods that they purchase via distance selling are not delivered within 30 days.

The Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (“OHIM”) recently declared the invalidity of the registered Community trademark “instaweather”, granting the application for a declaration of invalidity filed by Instagram LLC, the owner of the well-known trademark.

On 5 October, the IP Court of Milan (Judge Mrs Tavassi) issued an interim decision in a dispute between two companies managing paid car parks, respectively the licensor and licensee of the ParkToFly trademark and of the booking software hosted on the domain name www.parktofly.it.

Following a preliminary proceeding commenced by Barilla against an Italian textile company to stop the production and commercialisation of pillows reproducing the name and the shape of some of Barilla’s most famous cookies, the Milan IP Court upheld both the word trademark infringement and the parasitic competition claim, granting an injunction in the terms described below.

A recent ruling on patent infringement (no. 10512/15 of 18 September 2015, President and writer Mrs M. A. Tavassi) was an opportunity for the IP Court of Milan to lay down some principles on the request of limitation of the enforced patent, and on the participation of the parties in the expert witness’ operations.

On 10 September, the IP Court of Milan issued an interesting ruling (no. 10164/15) on the infringement of a utility model under the doctrine of equivalents.

Judgment no. 8817/2015 of 17 July 2015 of the Business Matters Section of the Milan Tribunal is one of a long list of rulings by this Court on the imitation of the packaging of competitors’ products

In judgments on September 10 (in cases T-525/13 and T-526/13), the General Court (GC) of the European Union declared valid two Community designs representing handbags owned by the maison Yves Saint Laurent S.a.S., rejecting the actions proposed by the fast-fashion giant H&M, which claimed nullity of the designs due to lack of individual character.

The Civil Court of Milan recently issued an interesting ruling in a dispute involving personality rights (ruling no. 8423/2015, published on 08 July 2015).

In decision no. 7640/13, published on the 5th of August, the IP Court of Milan ruled that the Community word trademark “IWEB”, owned by Apple Inc., does not infringe the earlier Italian trademarks owned by Galgano Informatica S.r.l., dismissing at the same time the counterclaim of invalidity proposed by Apple.

On 27 July the IP Court of Bologna issued a judgment (no. 2340/15) which summarises the current Italian law and case-law on the protection of trade secrets.

In the decision of 7th July in case R 1673/2014-4, the Fourth Board of Appeal of the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) granted the appeal proposed by Net-a-Porter Group Ltd., a leading company in high-fashion online retailing, against the Spanish Duka Márquez S.L., which sought to register the word sign “Chêf-à-porter” as a Community trademark (CTM).

The Italian Court of Cassation recently set forth principles to be followed in the matter of proof of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages resulting from copyright infringement. In particular, it ruled on a decision of Genoa’s Court of Appeal concerning the infringement of copyright on the exhibition of paintings and sculptures «Italian journey.

By judgment of 15 July no. 8745/15, the Court of Milan – Business Chamber “A” – clarified certain issues relating to the proof of ownership of the plant variety rights provided by Articles 100 onwards of the Italian IP Code and by Regulation no. 2100/94/EC (and granted at a national level by the Italian Patent and Trademark Office, and at the Community level by the Community Plant Variety Office).

At the end of a legal battle echoing an earlier lawsuit brought by the same plaintiff, Gianni Rivera, the famous Italian ex-footballer, has been granted damages by a Milan Court for the violation of his personality rights in connection with YouTube adverts.