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Not Just a Label launches an intellectual property rights marketplace: will it be the future in designer rights transfer?

Fashion always changes, turns into something new, sometimes reinvents itself, but most importantly, it follows the seasons. To make this possible, there must be an industry behind that works relentlessly, that is innovative and that listens to consumer perceptions, that observes, studies and researches. It is required, paradoxically, that in an industry like fashion, which …

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HFSS products: The Italian advertising authority issues regulation on the commercial communication of foods and beverages addressed to children

By Elena Varese and Andrea Michelangeli The Istituto di Autodisciplina Pubblicitaria, i.e. the Italian advertising standards authority (“IAP“) has recently issued a new piece of regulation aimed at specifically providing guidance on the commercial communication of food and beverage products addressed to children, which entered into force on 9 February 2021 (“Regulation“), thus extending the …

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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 …

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Milan Fashion Week and Fashion Law Trends – The magic realm of the right of publicity!

As the Milan Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2021 goes on, another hot topic getting the attention of fashion houses is the issue of celebrities’ right of publicity, i.e. the right to control the commercial use of their identity. To what extent are fashion brands free to use celebrities’ name or image in their marketing communication and …

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Latest news: Sky v. Skykick, CJEU decision overturns Advocate General’s opinion

By Andrea Michelangeli and Annamaria Algieri On 29 January 2020, the CJEU issued its judgement on the Sky v. Skykick case, one of the most awaited trademark decisions of the past years. As anticipated in our previous article posted last October 2019 (you can find it here: https://blogs.dlapiper.com/iptitaly/2019/10/sky-v-skykick-or-on-the-meaning-of-computer-software/), the dispute came up when Sky, active …

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Sky v. Skykick, or on the meaning of “computer software”

On 16 October 2019, the Advocate General Tanchev issued his opinion in relation to one of the most interesting trademark disputes of the recent years, waiting for a preliminary ruling judgement before the CJEU.

The dispute involves Sky plc, Sky International AG and Sky UK Limited (“Sky”), active in the satellite and digital television broadcast service, against Skykick UK Limited and Skykick Inc (“Skykick”), which supply cloud migration information technology services.

According to the results of the main proceedings held before the High Court of Justice of the UK, Sky sued Skykick for having allegedly infringed its EU trademarks consisting in the word “SKY” through the use of the sign “Skykick” and its variants. Skykick defended its position by denying the trademark infringement alleged by Sky and by counterclaiming that Sky’s trademarks were invalidly registered, on the two grounds that (i) the specifications of goods and services lack clarity and precision and (ii) the relevant trademark applications were consequently made in bad faith.

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.

Milan Fashion Week and Fashion Law Trends – The never-ending saga of cultural appropriation in fashion

Over the last years we have witnessed extensive disapproval of the fashion world when dealing with collections or campaigns inspired by different cultures. As a fact, criticism on alleged cases of cultural appropriation has been rising to the stars throughout the years and does not seem to come to an end.

Generally speaking, cultural appropriation is defined as the unrecognized or inappropriate adoption of traditions, practices, ideas, etc. of one culture by members of another cultural, usually the latter being more dominant.

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?”