Copyright registration in Italy. Italy, officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy, is a country consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and several islands surrounding it. Italy has an advanced economy. The country is the eighth-largest by nominal GDP (third in the European Union), the eighth-largest by national wealth, and the third-largest by central bank gold reserve. It ranks highly in life expectancy, quality of life, healthcare, and education. The country is a great power and it has a significant role in regional and global economic, military, cultural, and diplomatic affairs. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of copyright registration in Italy.
Copyright in Italy
Unlike other intellectual property rights such as trademarks, patents, industrial designs, plant varieties, etc., copyright does not need to be registered for protection but will be automatically protected from the time the works are created.
The creation must be visible in a certain material form, like content, quality, form, medium, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered.
Accordingly, whether registered or not, the copyright to the work will still be protected. However, the creator should still apply for copyright registration in Italy early because early registration will give the author/owner of the work many advantages in the event of a dispute.
When unauthorized use of work occurs around the world, the owner of a work who has made a copyright registration in Italy will not have to waste time and complicate matters with proving himself/herself to be the legitimate owner of the work.
Thereby, in order to avoid passivity, the owner of the work should make a copyright registration in Italy immediately to protect their rights and interests when there is an infringement.
Copyright registration in Italy
Italy is a member country of The Berne Convention for Copyright since 1887.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (the Berne Convention) is an international agreement governing copyright. The agreement was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886.
As Italy is a contracting party of the Berne Convention, any work originating in Italy will be given copyright protection in each of the Berne Convention member countries.
In most countries, copyright protection is automatic as soon as the work existed in material form. However, the copyright registration in Italy is critical in order for the copyright owner to obtain evidence of copyright.
Evidence of copyright is extremely important even when the works are automatically protected according to copyright law.
When registering, the work will get an application submission date, as well as information about the creation and proof of creative concept and development. This provides unambiguous proof of authorship and ownership that can’t be denied.
Proof of copyright is essential in an age when the publishing, dissemination, and theft of material is extremely easy with the exposure of the Internet.
If copyright registration is not made, copyright owners will lose a big amount of money as well as time attempting to fight copyright issues and prove ownership of the original work.
If the copyright owner has already registered for copyright protection to the IP office, they would have a strong legal foundation which would increase their chance of winning against the violating parties.
Documents for copyright registration in Italy
To obtain copyright registration in Italy, the author of the work needs to prepare the following documents:
- Declaration of copyright registration in Italy;
- Two copies of copyrighted work;
- Documents proving the right to apply;
- Written consent of co-authors, if the work has co-authors;
- Written consent of the co-owners, if the copyright is jointly owned;
- Notarized identity card of the author or owner of the work;
- Power of Attorney, if the applicant is an authorized person;
- Notarized copy of the company’s business registration certificate (if the owner is a company).
The copyright law of Italy
Provisions related to Italian copyright law (diritto d’autore) are found in Law no. 633 of 22 April 1941 (along with its various amendments). Certain fundamental provisions are also found in the Italian Civil Code of 1942, Arts. 2575–2583.
Copyright law in Italy has not changed much since the first enactment of these provisions. There have been amendments to Law no. 633 to incorporate specific works such as computer programs and databases or to add or alter user exceptions, but generally Italian lawmakers have been reluctant to institute any major or fundamental reforms.
Italian copyright law is based strongly on authors’ rights. Exceptions to authors’ exclusive rights are limited – there is no provision equivalent to fair use or fair dealing — and are generally interpreted restrictively by the courts.
You can find the list of Italy IP Firms here.