Intellectual Property

A new episode in the Rubik’s Cube saga

Rubik’s Brand v EUIPO – Simba Toys (Case T-601/17) by Laura Gastaldi, Lara Mastrangelo and Alessandra Tozzi Whether you are from the 20th century or a millennial, the Rubik’s cube will immediately bring you back in time. Indeed, such multicolored three-dimensional puzzle is one of the most popular toys of all times, with more than …

A new episode in the Rubik’s Cube saga Read More »

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 – Karl Lagerfeld’s heritage: who is going to award the rights on his image? Does the cat really take it all?

Last July, with “The Dawn of Romanity” haute couture show against the Colosseum backdrop, Fendi paid tribute to its longtime Creative Director Karl Lagerfeld, with 54 outfits to represent his 54-year tenure at the maison. But who owns the rights in the image of the recently deceased iconic fashion genius?

According to some leaks, the worldwide famous designer Karl Lagerfeld, before his death, would have left the entirety of his heritage to his beloved cat Choupette. This is not the first time a person decides to nominate his pet as the universal heir: from Countess Karlotta Liebenstein to Alexander McQueen, leaving everything (or a big portion of one’s assets) to a pet has become a sort of trend for many celebrities… But what are the legal consequences in relation to the rights of image of the celebrity according to the Italian law?

Milan Fashion Week and Fashion Law Trends – Fashion and Parody: a trendy combo?

The retail and fashion sectors need to deal with new legal issues due to the adoption of IoT technologies as a consequence of the rapid digital revolution of the industry.

The “wave” of the Internet of Things is heavily impacting the retail sector leading to new legal issues that have never been experienced by most fashion brands, and in general retail companies.

Milan Fashion Week and Fashion Law Trends – Can Artificial Intelligence create a style? The relationship between fashion and technology

As we already discovered in some of our previous articles, from 3D avatars to wardrobe advisers, passing through CGI and Robot IT girls, artificial intelligence (“AI”) is shaping our outfits and looks.

Indeed, AI is transforming the fashion industry in every element of its value chain and marketplace. In last years, all retail giants are using AI to improve the efficiency of sales systems and processes and to enhance clients’ shopping experience, offering a personalized service tailored on their interests and preferences.

Most of the biggest fashion houses – from H&M to Tommy Hilfiger – are now investing in algorithms that suggest styles to their customers.

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 –  Monograms: just letters or powerful 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, …

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

DLA Piper eSports law booklet

The eSports market has grown at a tremendous pace over the past few years becoming a half billion dollar industry and it is quickly seducing an increasing number of fans, operators and investors. Beside the huge growth, the industry is rapidly evolving, going from content consumed largely through streaming platforms to network-backed streaming services.

The eSports law booklet from the Italian IPT team of DLA Piper covers a number of current and upcoming legal issues of eSports and how to deal with them in order to help companies operating in the market to better understand the issues that are arising and to which the eSports industry in some cases does not still have a good answer.

eSports and Copyright between choreographies and UGC

There are a number of copyright issues related to the choreography of an eSports game. In these days the first (and most important) regards the protection of choreographic elements (i.e. a dance) which could appear in videogames. In Europe and in the USA, a choreographic work is protected by copyright. This is why an extended series of dances moves that is original to its creator can be protected by copyright. The above explains the law suits recently filed in the USA at the end of 2018 by several individuals in connection with famous Fortnite videogame.

If you are not familiar with Fortnite, players can buy (or earn) emotes, short avatar animations who can replicate generic acrobatic moves and dances. The Fortnite Loser Dance (so called L Dance) become famous thanks to the French soccer player Griezmann, who used this theme after scoring in the last World Cup 2018 final against Croatia.

Loot boxes and its regulatory implications

Loot box regulation is a hot topic in a variety of regions. The attention over loot boxes began when a number of video games started to incorporate gaming micro-transactions for chance-based items within the game.

Previously, video games were sold as a stand-alone product and the interaction between players and the developers of the game existed only and to the extent players would have bought a sequel or an expansion pack of the video game.

How do you spell e-Stadium?

The majority of legal analysis concerning the raise of e-Sports tends to coagulate around the main stakeholders, i.e. the IP owners, the broadcasters, the sponsors and the e-athletes and teams, focusing on the appropriate way to discipline their relationships, possibly against a regulated background capable of dealing with gambling, e-doping and, more generally, with the requirements and rules set by laws, sport authorities and similar bodies.

There is however a missing piece in this picture: the audience, i.e. the increasing crowd interested to see the e-games, possibly attending live events, with the opportunity to meet their idols and see them play live.

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.

Milan Fashion Week and Fashion Law Trends − New brand identity in the fashion industry: is the “sans-serification” the right move? 

In recent months many fashion companies have been restyling their brands by simplifying and minimizing their visual impact: big fashion industries are dropping unique fonts, words and design features − which until now have significantly contributed to differentiate their brands from their competitors’ ­− in favor of most popular and common fonts, such as sans-serif.

“Less is more”, we may say.

Milan Fashion Week and Fashion Law Trends – Lil Miquela, Shudu, Bermuda and Sophia The Robot: CGI and Robot IT Girls Who Will Become the Influencers of the Future

There is a new crop of influencersin town and – read carefully – they are not real people.

Virtual influencers – influencers who are not human, but rather are CGI creations or robots – are the latest trend on social media. CGI stands for “computer-generated imagery” and it is a technology that creates pictures through the use of computers, now applied to create the new trend of virtual – but realistic – Instagram influencers and models.

In particular, the top 4 leading the group are Miquela Sousa, Bermuda, Shudu and Sophia the Robot.