Court of Appeals of Torino, by ruling No. 677/2019 ratified on 16 April the protection of the shape of the Vespa motorcycle as a three-dimensional mark, industrial design, and as copyright protected work. The court also rejected the appeal filed by two Chinese companies, whom were convicted in first degree for falsification of trademark and copyright law infringement.
It is relevant to analyze the position of the court regarding; i) the validity of Article 9 of the C.P.I. (Industrial Property Code) as a three-dimensional trademark of an industrial design that has been patented as a utility model or registered as a design or model; and, ii) the confirmation of the “artistic value in itself” that is subordinated to the copyright protection of the industrial design according to article 2 of the L.D.A. (Copyright Law).
Regarding Article 9, the Court argues that there is no prohibition preventing the shape of a certain object of being “eventually registered as a design or model and, successively, as a trademark”.
On the other hand, the ruling significantly emphasizes the need to share the assessment of the first-degree judgment against the “artistic value itself” of Vespa’s industrial design due to the fact that it is based on results of the complete evaluation related to the requirements originating from innovation and creativity.
Original Source in Italian:
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