Elena Varese

Milan Fashion Week and Fashion Law Trends – Monograms: just letters or powerful trademarks?

By Elena Varese / 17 September 2019 18 September 2019 / Fashion, General, Intellectual Property, IP, Trademarks

By Elena Varese e Lara Mastrangelo The Milan Fashion Week has just started and from today we are glad to host for the second time some highlights on the major fashion law trends of this season. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” used to claim Juliet in the famous Shakespeare’s play, but would a Louis Vuitton bag without its legendary monogram – or with a slightly different one – be as fashionable? To be honest, the tragic end of Shakespeare’s story might suggest that names – like it or not – have a significant value. This …

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Use of excerpts of videogames and eSports competitions without the right holder’s consent: is it fair use (or the Princess is in another castle)?

By Elena Varese / 21 February 2019 24 June 2019 / Copyright, General, Intellectual Property, IP, Media & TLC

Publications sharing tips on how to complete videogames and maximise bonuses might increase with the expansion of the eSport competitions. The same applies to platforms streaming videogames alone or together with eSport actions of the various players. Yet are these activities possible without the right holders’ consent?

Under Italian law, videogames are protected as a whole as copyright works like movies, whilst their frames could be protected as simple photographies (with protection lasting 20 years from their publication). Following a different opinion, videogame frames could be excluded from protection, as they may considered similar to documents, as provided by Art. 87, last sentence of the Italian Copyright Law (ICL).

Milan Fashion Week and Fashion Law Trends: Use and protection of fashion archives

By Elena Varese / 19 February 2019 24 June 2019 / Advertising, Copyright, Fashion, General, Intellectual Property, IP, Trademarks

The Milan Fashion Week has just started and from today we are glad to host some highlights on the major fashion law trends of this season.

Heritage is one of the major assets a fashion company holds and the ultimate tendency of this Fashion Week is to revamp old creations from the maison’s archives.

Firstly, it should be assessed whether the fashion company can use its own archives. This seems to be a plain question, however, in practice, it could happen that, despite being the owner of the physical copies of sketches and preparatory works of certain garments or motifs, the company does not hold the IP rights over such creations of the past.

Top 3 fashion predictions

By Elena Varese / 16 January 2019 24 June 2019 / Advertising, Consumers, Copyright, Fashion, General, Intellectual Property, IP, Trademarks

As “fashion fades and only style remains”, here you have our (hopefully stylish) guess on the top three fashion predictions for 2019.

The fight against counterfeiting continues: the first Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List is now out.

By Elena Varese / 20 December 2018 24 June 2019 / Fashion, Intellectual Property, Internet & E-commerce, IP, Trademarks

After the public consultation launched last January, on 7 December 2018, the European Commission (EC) published the first Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List, which provides examples of reported marketplaces or service providers located outside the EU and engaged in counterfeiting and piracy.

Such Watch List was highly expected by right holders and represents the last measure adopted by the EC against infringers, after the Overview of the functioning of the Memorandum of Understanding on the sale of counterfeit goods via the internet (MoU) in 2016 and the Guidelines for online platforms to tackle illegal content in 2017.

#Adv or not #Adv? This is the question.

By Elena Varese / 31 July 2018 24 June 2019 / Advertising, Commercial, Fashion, Intellectual Property, Internet & E-commerce, IT & Sourcing, Media & TLC

On 26 June 2018, the Italian Advertising Authority (IAP) took a step further on online advertising and issued one of its first decisions based on the Digital Chart and art. 7 of the Advertising Self-Regulatory Code (the “Code”). The case was about some Instagram Stories and a picture published by the Italian singer Fedez on the occasion of the International Tennis Cup displaying some cars and emphasizing some of their functions, like the massage in the seats.

The Protection of Fashion Shows in Italy: An Uncharted Stage

By Elena Varese / 8 May 2018 24 June 2019 / Fashion, General, Intellectual Property, IP

Fashion shows today are far more than just couple of models on a catwalk: They include real stories and performances, entail very significant investments and the participation of a great deal of contributors.

An Italian copyright authorship saga: The armchair of Gio Ponti

By Elena Varese / 18 July 2017 24 June 2019 / General, Intellectual Property

The heirs of the acclaimed architect and designer Gio Ponti and the company Molteni & C. S.p.A. filed a lawsuit before the Court of Milan against Cassina S.p.A.. Both companies claimed exclusive rights on a model of armchair designed by Gio Ponti in the fifties.