copyright

NFT: just another bubble or the next big revolution?

By Lara Mastrangelo and Valentina Mazza NFTs’ legal implications for the art, music and fashion industries Do you remember Magritte’s famous painting displaying a pipe with the wording “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”, or Duchamp’s irreverent readymades? Well, keep them in mind, as it is from that moment on that artists started questioning the relationship …

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Cheating in Esports tournaments – legal arguments for discouraging bad players

by Giulio Coraggio, Vincenzo Giuffrè and Micaela Jerusalmi The Esports market has been booming over the last years and the recent Covid-19 strict regulations impacting the sports sector and imposing social distancing have greatly increased the focus on Esports competitions so far. Even with this scenario, the legal challenges for global Esports online platforms and …

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The makeup of protection of a makeup store layout: a missed chance to apply the Cofemel decision?

By Valentina Mazza and Andrea Michelangeli In our fashion law predictions for 2020 (available here), we anticipated Italian case-law following the trend set by the CJEU in the Cofemel decision (for the illustration of the case, see our previous post here) by making it easier to access copyright protection in Italy. No magic wand, but …

The makeup of protection of a makeup store layout: a missed chance to apply the Cofemel decision? Read More »

Top 3 legal predictions on Copyright for 2020

By Roberto Valenti, Alessandra Tozzi and Lara Mastrangelo Copyright plays a paramount role in enhancing and protecting human creations, but, at the same time, it may clash with other fundamental rights and therefore needs to be balanced. During 2019 many events occurred in the copyright field. What will happen in the course of 2020? Art …

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Paparazzi v. celebrities copyright lawsuits – the last American trend!

It is common to spot groups of paparazzi taking pictures at celebrities, fashion icons and influencers on the streets not only during fashion weeks and events, but also in their day-to-day lives. At the same time, it has become increasingly frequent in the United States for paparazzi to file copyright infringement lawsuits against celebrities for sharing those pictures on the Internet, i.e. on social media platforms, without the photographers’ “permission or consent” or without paying them any licence fee.

The latest to be sued by a paparazzi for copyright infringement is no less than Victoria Beckham, but the list includes both celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Ariana Grande, Gigi and Bella Hadid and brands such as Marc Jacobs and Versace. In general, these cases tended to end with out-of-court settlements that led celebrities to pay steep monetary damages. This created a precedent and many other lawsuits, which are still pending, followed, in the last few months.

Milan Fashion Week and Fashion Law Trends – Does the Cofemel decision marks the end of “artistic value”?

As the Milan Fashion Week goes on in these days, we are eager to keep you updated with the very most recent fashion law topics and matters.

This time we speak about copyright after that on 12 September 2019, the CJEU issued the long-awaited decision on the Cofemel case C-683/17, which opens a new path for the copyright protection of designs in the EU and in Italy.

The case involved G-Star Raw CV and Cofemel – Sociedade de Vestuário SA, two companies active in the sector of clothing, including design, production and sale of materials. G-Star accused Cofemel of copying its designs related to jeans, sweatshirts and t-shirts products, claiming that its models constituted original intellectual creations qualified as “works” and protected under Portuguese Copyright Law. On the other side, Cofemel argued that such models could not be qualified as “works” and, hence, were not copyrightable.

Top 3 predictions for eSports in 2019

The eSports industry is in a period of rapid growth, but the growth of a market often leads to legal issues and obstacles that need to be overcome in order to achieve its potentials.

There is at the moment a range of legal and business issues where eSports need a more comprehensive approach involving learnt lessons from the sports and the gambling sectors.

Below are our top 3 predictions on the legal issues that will affect the eSports industry in 2019.

Legal focus on Banksy’s art of shredding

After revolutionizing the world of art, by transforming an act of vandalism − such as murals − in million dollars artworks, Banksy has recently hit the headlines with his latest provocation. In October, during a Sotheby’s auction, right after the awarding of one of his most famous creations entitled ‘Girl with balloon’ for more than £ 1.000.000, the painting literally destroyed itself. Immediately after, the artist declared to have intentionally placed a shredding machine within the frame. As a consequence, a new piece of artwork – ‘Love is in the bin’ – was created by destroying the first.

This episode definitely calls for some legal analysis also under Italian law of what went on in that occasion. “Can a destroyed artwork be considered as an artwork itself under the Italian Copyright Law? And, above all, what about the buyer’s position, who had purchased an expensive piece of artwork and then was left with some framed stripes of shredded paper?”