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Top 3 legal predictions on Copyright for 2020

By / 23 March 2020 / Artificial Intelligence, Copyright, Intellectual Property, IP

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 and Algorithms: do we immediately need rules for AI’s creations? As a new decade awaits and AI hype begins to dissipate, the need for regulations addressing AI becomes more stringent. As anticipated last year, AI technologies are gradually making their way also in areas traditionally …

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

By / 20 February 2020 / Advertising, Fashion, Intellectual Property, IP

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 for archive purposes? Does celebrities’ right of publicity extend also to the use of their look-alike? Can a celebrity’s name be used on a fashion item or even give the name to the product itself?

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

By / 3 February 2020 / Intellectual Property, IP, Trademarks

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 in the satellite and digital television broadcast service, sued before the High Court of Justice of the UK Skykick, which supplies cloud migration information technology services, for the infringement of the EU trademarks consisting in the word “SKY”. Skykick denied the infringement and counterclaimed that …

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A new episode in the Rubik’s Cube saga

By / 29 October 2019 / Intellectual Property, IP, Trademarks

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 350 million units sold worldwide. Yet, there are few things that not everybody knows about the Magic Cube. The first one is that it was not originally meant to be a toy: Ernõ Rubik, an Hungarian professor, invented it in 1974 in order to help …

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

By / 28 November 2019 / Intellectual Property, IP, Trademarks

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.

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

By / 28 November 2019 / Copyright, Fashion, Intellectual Property, IP

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.

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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?

By / 28 November 2019 / Copyright, Fashion, Intellectual Property, IP

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?

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

By / 28 November 2019 / Fashion, Intellectual Property, IP, Trademarks

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.

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

By / 28 November 2019 / Artificial Intelligence, Consumers, Copyright, Data Protection, Fashion, Intellectual Property, Internet & E-commerce, Internet of Things, IP

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.

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

By / 28 November 2019 / Copyright, Fashion, Intellectual Property, IP

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.

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