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Via Katfriends Elena Martini and Luigi Manna ( Martini Manna Law Firm ) comes the news that recently the Venice Court of First Instance - in the context of interim proceedings - acknowledged copyright protection in the design (including of its interiors) of a yacht ( RG 2236/2018 ). Background An architect, Tiberio Cerato, was commissioned to design the layout, interiors and furnishings of a yacht named Checkmate. A company, Wally, from which the yacht purchaser had only acquired the structural parts, however, published on its own website photographs of the yacht as if it was its own work. It also uploaded a video of the yacht  on both YouTube and Vimeo  in which it represented itself as the one responsible for the styling and interior design, without even mentioning the architect's name and indicating, instead, itself and another person as responsible for them. Cerato requested the Venice Court of First Instance to issue an interim order that would prohibit the company from ...

Big Red Can copyright vest in mascots and characters? This, in a nutshell, is the question that the Italian Supreme Court had to address in Ralph v Mediaset and Others , decision 14635/2018 [Katpat to Valentina Borgese for the heads up and the text of the decision] .  The Italian court answered in the affirmative, and provided some helpful guidance on copyright subsistence, derivative works, and infringement. What happened? In 1979 Ralph Carey created what would become the mascot of the Western Kentucky University (WKU) basketball team, a red character named Big Red. In 2009 he brought proceedings before the Milan Court of First Instance against broadcasters RTI and Mediaset and the creator of well-known TV programme Striscia La Notizia , claiming that the likeness of mascot/TV character Gabibbo (‘operating’ since 1990) would infringe copyright in Big Red. The Milan court sided with Carey: in 2012 it held that Gabibbo infringed copyright in Big Red. It also awarded damages for EU...