Dr. Filippo Calda will give a speech on the relationship between software and new EU Directive on trade secrets at the next conference organized by “Orizzonti del Diritto Commerciale” to be held in Rome on February 23 and 24.
Dr. Filippo Calda will give a speech on the relationship between software and new EU Directive on trade secrets at the next conference organized by “Orizzonti del Diritto Commerciale” to be held in Rome on February 23 and 24.
The Court of Florence last October 25, 2017 issued a decision prohibiting a travel agency to commercially use the image of Michelangelo’s David without the authorization of the “Galleria dell’Accademia”, (Galleria) the museum where the sculpture is located.
On November 6, 2017, the European Delegation Law 2016-2017 was published in the Official Gazette No. 259. Among the provisions of said Law (No. 163 of October 25, 2017), the Parliament delegates to the Government the transposition of some European directives, including those involving industrial and intellectual property rights, with particular reference to Articles 3, 4 and 15.
Article 3 delegates to the Government the adoption of one or more legislative decrees:
with regard to the implementation of Directive (EU) No. 2015/2436 in order to approximate the legislations of the Member States on trade marks, and
with regard to the adjustment of the national legislation to reflect the provisions of Regulation (EU) No 2015/2424 on the European Union Trade Mark (EUTM).
Article 4 includes a delegation to adjust the national legislation:
to the European regulations in the matter of unitary patent protection, as set forth in Regulation (EU) 1257/2012, and
to regulations establishing the Unified Patent Court (Agreement ratified and enforced in accordance with Law No. 214 of November 3, 2016).
Article 15 introduces specific guidelines for the implementation of Directive (EU) 2016/943 on the protection of trade secrets and the fight against unlawful acts in this field.
The CJEU recently ruled on the scope of the repair clause in the Design Regulation. In a guest post, Fabio Angelini of the MARQUES Designs Team and his colleague Domenico Demarinis analyse the judgment in the Acacia cases
On 20 December 2017 the European Court of Justice (CJEU) ruled on joined cases C-397/16 and C-435/16, referred to the CJEU by the Court of Appeal of Milan (Italy) and by the Bundesgerichtshof (Germany). These cases concern proceedings brought by Audi and Porsche against Acacia Srl, an Italian manufacturer of wheel rims for cars allegedly infringing Audi’s and Porsche’s Community designs.
Three main issues
Acacia wheel rims for Audi cars
The CJEU was called to decide three main sets of issues.
First it had to decide whether or not the “repair clause” (Article 110(1) of the Community Design Regulation) is dependent upon the appearance of the complex product. In other words, is it applicable only to those components of a complex product whose shape is necessarily dictated by such product (for instance the hood of a particular kind of car, or the arm of a pair of sunglasses) or does it include other parts, such as wheel rims, which may be manufactured in all possible ways since their shape does not necessarily depend on that of any particular kind of car?