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The Intellectual and Industrial Property Department assists Italian and international
clients in all legal aspects connected to Intellectual and Industrial property
protection (on
the basis of the new Code on Industrial Property - Legislative Decree 10 February
2005, n.30), either in relation to ordinary and urgent judicial protection
before ordinary courts and before Italian and international arbitration courts
(i.e. request for provisional injunctions, seizure and confiscation of goods,
publication of notices on newspapers, destruction of counterfeited products,
prosecution's management before criminal courts, etc.), or in relation to extra-judicial
assistance (i.e. administrative procedures for the registration of trademarks,
patents, designs, models etc., before the competent national and international
Authorities, Copyright registration in the Washington Copyright office, drafting
of sector's specific contracts - licensing, merchandising, franchising, distribution,
etc.). The Department provides specific legal assistance on legal protection's
issues generally implied in pharmaceutical and biotechnological sectors. The
Ministry for Agriculture and Forest Policies appointed some of the Department's
Attorneys as expert members of the permanent Working Party on Biotechnology discipline,
which focuses primarily on the use of O.G.M. in the Agricultural and Food sector.
The Department provides also specialized legal services on Intellectual and
Industrial Property protection in the Information Society and Information Technologies
fields.
The Firm often receives requests for assistance with investigations, monitoring,
and preventive measures concerning intellectual and industrial property rights
protection, and also with national and international anti-piracy legislation
issues, trademarks and patents counterfeiting, breach of license contracts,
unfair competition practices, and the so called domain grabbing etc..
The Department works off of substantial experience in web-related intellectual
property protection and provides the following services:
- Web-related intellectual property protection , especially web copyright
protection according to the Legislative Decree 9 April 2003 n. 68 "Transposing
the EU Directive 2001/29 Council Europe 22 May 2001 on "Harmonization
of Certain Aspects of Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society" and
according to the Law 21 may 2004, n. 128 "Transposing the Decree 22
March 2004, n. 72, implementing measures to contrast the abusive electronic
diffusion
of audio-visual material and to sustain cinema and entertainment's activities".
- Domain names protection, both on national (see also the services offered
by the Domain
Names Disputes Department) and international levels (the Firm
has represented and defended before the World Intellectual Property Protection
Organization of Geneva a number of subjects holding rights on domain names).
- Computer programs and electronic databanks protection (according to
the Legislative Decree 29 December 1992 n. 518 "Transposing the EU Directive
91/250 on protection of computer programs" and as provided for in the
Legislative Decree 6 May 1999 n. 169 "Transposing the EU Directive 96/9
on the legal protection of databanks"), including the administrative
procedures at S.I.A.E. copyright office (i.e. software registration in the
Public Software
Registry).
- Administrative procedures to apply for licenses to operate web based
business activities (i.e. issuing SIAE licenses of use for SIAE copyrighted
music libraries
on the Internet and through mobile phone services: ringtones, dedications,
multimedia usage; integrative agreements for fee-based download, notification
of multimedia business start up, etc.).
- Legal and contractual assistance with commercial and advertising promotion
activities of web products and services, with special regard to sponsoring
and advertising on the Internet (new typologies of advertising banners set
by the International Advertising Board).
- Legal assistance with publishing reform issues (L. 62/2001) regarding
the on-line publication of new multimedia products (including the duties
set out in the law 15 April 2004, n. 106 "Norms relative to the legal deposit
of documents of cultural interest for public use").
In the Copyright sector, the Firm has particular experience in managing and
protecting broadcasting and sports image Rights; the Firm provides consulting
to national and international Film Production Companies and to show-business
and sport celebrities of national and world fame.
Advertising is considered closely related to Intellectual Property. The Firm
assists multinational companies in validating their advertising campaigns (TV
spots, press promotions, packaging, prize-award campaigns etc.) by verifying
the compliance of such campaigns with the legal framework on misleading and
comparative advertising and fair competition.
The Firm also evaluates the conformity of rival advertising campaigns with
the aforementioned norms.
Other services involve administrative procedures to protect ideas, advertising
creations and pay-off by registering them with the Advertising Self-disciplinary
Institute (IAP) located in Milan. The Firm assists with protection in proceedings
before the Antitrust Authority and the Advertising Self-disciplinary Jury for
infringements of norms regulating advertising activities (Legislative Decree
74/1992 and subsequent amendments and integrations, Advertising Self-disciplinary
Code (CAP).
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