ABSTRACT
This short paper analyses Italian case law on originality under copyright law. As opposed to jurisdictions such as UK which have a closed system of copyrightable subject matter, the list of what can be copyrighted under Italian law is open-ended. An open list approach has the advantage of injecting greater flexibility into the system and aims at guaranteeing comprehensiveness of protection; and new works are not denied protection merely because they do not fall within any category of the list. Italian courts have often taken advantage of that flexibility.
The paper is structured as follows. While Section II deals with literary works, the focus shifts to musical works in Section III. Section IV then analyses case law related to visual artworks, including photographs, architectural works and industrial designs. Cinematographic works and choreographic/theatrical works are dealt with, respectively, in Sections V and VI. Finally, Section VII expands on some decisions over the originality of atypical works – namely, subject matter which is not explicitly mentioned in the statute. Section VIII concludes.
Bonadio, Enrico and De Mucci, Nicoletta, Originality in Italian Copyright Law – An Overview of the Case Law (April 11, 2022) in Indranath Gupta, Vishwas H Devaiah and Manveen Singh, Handbook on Originality in Copyright: Cases and Materials (Springer, Forthcoming).
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