What is the Artist's Resale Right?

The artist's resale right an “inalienable” right granted, in some jurisdictions,  to artists or their heirs to receive a compensation on the resale of their works of art. This right is often known by its French name droit de suite.
The directive 2001/84/EC of the European Parliament creates a right under European Union law for artists to receive royalties on their works when these are resold.  Member States may set a minimum sale price below which the artist's resale right will not apply: this threshold may not be more than 3,000 euros or 10,000 euros where the seller acquired the work of art directly from the artist less than three years before the resale.

The Artist’s Resale Right applies to the sale of artworks in the European Economic Area (EEA).  Artists who are nationals of these countries are therefore generally eligible to receive resale royalties.
Eleven European Union countries currently recognize “droit de suite” in their legislation. United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria and the Netherlands being still an exception. Of the eleven countries which recognize this right, only eight actually do collect the royalty.
The law applies to all “works of graphic and plastic arts”. Works of art must be original and the criteria for the original status of engravings, prints and lithographs are defined in agreements between the authors’ societies and auctioneers.

In Italy this right is granted to artists and their heirs for seventy years after his death on the occasion of transactions of works of art or manuscripts in which intervenes a professional art market. In particular, are subject to “droit de suite” all acts of resale, if they involve vendors, buyers or intermediaries represented by art market professionals, such as salesrooms, art galleries and art dealers in general, with the exception of sales between private individuals. The sales must be reported, by the professional acted as the seller or buyer broker, by declaration to the SIAE, within the period of ninety days from the sale. , the submission of the sale proceeds and compensation for all subsequent sales, are entirely charged to the seller.

The organization in charge of collecting the right below on behalf of all the artists is the SIAE, which currently governs the rights of authors affiliated companies, in which the royalty is already in force.

The compensation is calculated on the sale price, net of tax, on a percentage basis differentiated in relation to the different echelons, are calculated as follows:

• 4% for the portion of the sale price up to  50,000.00 euros; (*)
• 3% for the portion of the sale price of between 50,000.01 and 200,000.00 euros;
• 1% for the portion of the sale price of between 200,000.01 and 350,000.00 euros;
• 0.5% for the portion of the sale price of between 350.000,01 and 500,000.00 euros;
• 0.25% for the portion of the sale price exceeding 500,000.00 euros.

The total amount of compensation cannot be still greater than 12,500.00 euros.
The SIAE, appointed in Italy to collect payments on the resale right for the artists, published in the Official Gazette a large list of authors whose works have been the subject of a sale which led to the maturation of the resale right, for which, however, has not yet been claimed that right. The gap between the real amount of droit de suite percentage on the sales and the amounts duly paid to the artists and their heirs shows how difficult is to effectively implement this European principle. 

By Francesca Filipo

YouTube Threatened with Big Copyright Lawsuit

Global Music Rights is a performing rights company that competes with other collecting societies such as ASCAP and BMI. Its clients include Pharrell Williams, John Lennon, The Eagles and Smokey Robison.

It claims that more than 20.000 videos are not licensed. Royalties that could amount to hundred of millions of dollars.

CEO Irving Azoff says that Google Inc. the owner of YouTube has shown no willing to cooperate and threatened to sue the company for copyright infringement.

Google responded by accusing Global Music Rights of attempting to circumvent the DMCA.

Google already settled a claim with Viacom this year by claiming that no money changed hands.

What is Italian Sounding?

Protecting and developing products requires raising awareness about the historical, cultural and social heritage of our country.

Geographic origin is especially important for Italy, the European country with the most products registered as DOP and IGP.

The term Geographic Indication (GI) refers to DOP and IGP products as established by article 2 of European Community Regulation n. 510/06, OF 20 March 2006.

The matter of the fact is that the so called Italian Sounding Syndrome does not only concern food products: the phenomenon has reached enormous proportions, affecting products of all kinds, violating intellectual property and thus becoming a legally pursuable offense which is costing Italy 100's of billion.

Exactly that happened in Canada. Maple Leaf Foods registers "Prosciutto di Parma" as a trade mark,

produces some salted-dried pork and sells it under the Italian name. Next?

You guessed right: producers who make the traditional, original prosciutto di Parma can't call it by its real name in Canada because Maple Leaf Foods was more clever with the paperwork... 

What is the difference between the two you might ask?  Well...for one, Parma (the original ) only sells ham...

The Panther goes to Court.

By order n. 46868 filed in the Court on 13 November 2014, the Second Criminal Chamber of the Italian Supreme Court decided, to remit the examination of United Penal Sections on the following question: "if the introduction on the market of serial morphological toys, not bearing any brand, constituents the unlawful reproduction of articles protected by trademark is an offense according to Articles 473 and 474, or in art. 517  of the criminal code". 

The case arose from the introduction into Italian territory of a batch of 21,822 puppets depicting a counterfeited  MGM "Pink Panther".

On the merits, the Territorial Court observed that the puppets seized strongly resemble the character "Pink Panther", which are a specific registered trademark and, therefore, as such, subject to trademark protection.

The Court is expected to rule in the next two months.

Is Rubik's Cube a Trademark?

According to the judgment of 25 November 2014 (Case T-450/09) of the Court of Justice of the European Union, "the registration of the shape of the Rubik's Cube as a EU trademark is valid. The graphical representation of the cube does not involve a technical solution that prevents it to be protected as a trademark. "

The ruling solves a dispute arose as a result a registration request in front of the the application filed  in 1996, by Seven Towns a British company that manages the intellectual property rights related to the "Rubik's Cube" - for the registration as a Community trade mark of the three-dimensional shape of the cube to "puzzle in three dimensions.

In 1999 Seven Towns registered the famous cubes as a European trade mark. In 2006 Simba Toy, a German company that manufactures toys, filed for declaration of invalidity of the trademark.

According to the Court, the thick black lines that are part of that structure and appearing on the representations of the cube drawing a grid within them do not make any reference to a rotation capacity of the individual elements of the cube and, therefore, are not a technical function.

Indeed, the ability of rotation of the vertical and horizontal bands of the Rubik's cube is not derived from or black lines nor the grid structure, but by an internal mechanism of the cube that is invisible on its graphical representations. Consequently, the registration of the shape of the Rubik's Cube as a EU trademark can not be denied on the ground that it incorporates a technical function.

The Court also notes that the mark in question does not entitle the owner to prevent third parties to market all kinds of puzzles in three dimensions with a capacity of rotation, since the monopoly of commercialization of the owner is limited to the puzzle three dimensions having the shape of a cube whose faces are posted grid structure.

Finally, the Court considers that the cubic structure grid stand considerably from the representations of other puzzles in three dimensions on the market. This structure is therefore equipped with a distinctive character that enables consumers to identify the producer of the goods for which the mark is registered.

The ruling can now be appealed before the Court of Justice within two months of its service.

Linked Out.

The most striking aspect in the strict regulation of the new Italian code of professional conduct, which will be valid from December 15, is the fact that it quite clearly excludes the possibility for almost as many as 100.000 Italian lawyers to use not only of Facebook Pages or online advertising, but even LinkedIn.

There seems to be little room for misunderstandings. In fact the new wording of article 35 clearly states that online communication for law firms shall be possible "only on websites with their own domain name without possibility of redirecting information from another website."

This rule in not only surprising because clearly out of time with respect to the current digital communication context, but also because it punishes inappropriate behavior, like the use of local directories or even Google Maps.

The new Italian professional code of conduct seems to preclude the possibility for a law firm to defend and improve their reputation through the use of digital media and comparison with users.

While other professionals such as architects and designers show a steady increase in the Net as a community space to create and animate discussion groups not only for professionals, the new Italian professional code of conduct limits competition within the legal profession and transparency towards citizens.

The Battle over the Next Great Disruptive Technology

By Francesca Filipo and Martina Clochiatti


A 3D printer turns a blueprint into a physical object, built up layer by layer with a computer aided design program (CAD) simply running on your desktop computer.

Since 3D printers turned 3D printing professional services into low cost and on demand facilities, a wide range of products can be easily designed and manufactured at home. Any type of design can be found on the net where 3D printing communities share their files. No matter how it is created, once the CAD design exists it can be widely distributed just like any other computer file.

In many ways today’s 3D printing community resembles the open source community of the early 1990s. There is no central institution giving directions: users themselves invest time and thought in the evolutionary process. They are a relatively small, technically proficient group sharing their creations.

Popular websites like thingverse.com or shapeways.com where anyone may upload and download the design of a number of items were immediately facing IP rights infringement claims.

Recently, Moulinsart, which owns the rights to the cartoon Tintin, served Thingiverse with a Millennium Digital Copyright Act takedown notice. Thingiverse has been forced to remove a design individually developed by an user and freely inspired to Tintin character.

The same happened for the famous Star Wars Yoda character that, despite being turned into different objects, still represents a copyright infringement. The bust of Yoda is not something that you can duplicate or re-elaborate: “Even when designers take an object like that and change it, it's still legally protected”, as Disney legal team said.

Copyright, designs, patents and registered trademarks are the four IP classes that may be infringed by using a 3D printer. Many of these issues have already been discussed with regard to file-shared music and movies. Although 3D printing of copyrighted objects at home may constitute an infringement, the copyright will become increasingly impractical or impossible to enforce.

Technically, a consumer who copies a work by printing an already existing object will be liable for copyright infringement unless the consumer has permission from the copyright owner or only privately uses the printed object.

In this context the majors industries are trying to fight back the new digital era developments by strengthening IP rights, however it is undeniable that at some point a compromise will be necessary.