With the judgement published on 10 January (docket no. 23732/2012), the Court of Rome ascertained the liability of Vimeo LLC for the infringement of the related rights – under articles 78ter and 79 of the Italian Copyright Law – on TV programmes owned by Reti Televisive Italiane S.p.A. (RTI), in relation to the failure to remove several videos taken those programmes which were illegally uploaded to Vimeo by its users.

With the judgement of 19 December, the European Court of Justice (case C-572/17) ruled on the interpretation of Article 4 paragraph 1 of Directive 2001/29/EC which, as known, provides authors the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit any form of distribution to the public of the original or copies of their works.

By order dated 20 September 2018 (docket no. 45209/2017), ruling on the appeal of the first instance preliminary decision, the Court of Milan ascertained – within the limits of interim proceedings – the infringement by equivalence of Eli Lilly’s patent EP 1313508, concerning an anti-cancer drug named Alimta, which contains pemetrexed disodium.

By order of 18 December, in proceedings with docket no. 44211/2018, the IP Court of Milan provided a clear summary of the principles governing the protection of trademarks vis-à-vis retailers alien to the selective distribution network of the trademark owners.

The European Court of Justice, in a recent judgement dating 13 November 2018 (case C 310/17), gave a preliminary ruling concerning the interpretation of the concept of a ‘work’ under Directive 2001/29/EC on copyright and the possibility of including the taste of a food product in its definition.

With resolution no. 490/18, after a public consultation, the Italian Communications Authority (AGCOM) approved several amendments to the Regulation on copyright protection on electronic communication networks (we discussed the previous Regulation here on this blog, and the consolidated text of the new one is available at this link).

By judgement of 12 June (case C-163/16), the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) decided on the request for a preliminary ruling from the Rechtbank Den Haag (District Court, The Hague, Netherlands) in the course of infringement proceedings between Mr Christian Louboutin and Christian Louboutin SAS (together, “Louboutin”) and Van Haren Schoenen BV company (“Van Haren”), concerning the interpretation of Article 3.1 e) iii) of Directive 2008/95/EC.

With the above decision, published on 13 July 2018 (and available at this link), the Court of Cassation (the Italian Supreme Court) took stock of some substantive and procedural issues concerning the so-called acquiescence.

With a recent order issued at the end of preliminary appeal proceedings (Docket no. 2236/2018), the Venice IP Court granted copyright protection to the layout and interior design of a yacht, in favour of the architect who conceived them.

By judgment of 3 October 2018 (T-313/17), the EU Court ruled on an interesting case concerning the distinctiveness of a three-dimensional trademark depicting the shape of a peculiar bottle.

The “Gabibbo”, a character made popular in Italy by the TV show “Striscia la notizia”, ​​is at the centre of a long-lasting copyright dispute that has made its way up to the Court of Cassation (the Italian Court of last instance) for which there is no end in sight.

By decision no. 4595/18 of last April, the Milan IP Court granted copyright protection to some chairs designed by well-known US designers Charles and Ray Eames, produced and marketed exclusively by Vitra, whose copyrights were infringed by two Italian companies that marketed unauthorised copies.

On 14 March, the EU General Court ruled on case T-651/16 between the Crocs company, of the one part, and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Gifi Diffusion company, of the other.

By judgment of 7 August in case C-161/17, the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) dealt with a very frequent phenomenon nowadays: the re-posting of contents on webpages other than those on which they were originally published.

On 26 April, the EU General Court (case T 554/14) upheld the appeal in which the well-known football player Lionel Messi challenged the European Union Intellectual Property Office’s (EUIPO) decision rejecting his application for the registration of the “MESSI” trademark shown below.

With a preliminary decision of 26 February 2018, the IP Court of Milan recapped the principles governing unfair competition for the violation of confidential information and the unlawful solicitation of employees (docket no. 53629/18, Judge Mrs Giani).

On 23 January, the European Court of Justice (“CJEU”) issued a preliminary ruling upon request by the Italian Council of State in case C-179/16 concerning the interpretation of Article 101 TFEU, in the well-known proceedings between Hoffman-La Roche and Novartis, of the one part, and the Italian competition authority (“AGCM”), of the other.

Early this year, a three-year long “pillow fight” engaged by Barilla came to an end with a ruling in favour of the Parma food giant (Milan IP Court, decision no. 830/2018 of 25 January 2018).*