Protecting Creative Advertising Ideas And Projects - The Italian Approach.

1.- The definitions of 'creativity' and 'originality' have always given raise to intense debate in the context of IP rights' protection.

The advertising industry has to deal with an additional aspect of the problem: that of how to offer suitable protection to concepts, ideas, projects, claims or slogans prepared for campaign pitches or client evaluation. Far too often agencies and their creative people are facing the unpleasant fact that one of their brilliant ideas, conceived and proposed for a campaign project, turns out to be used by others. Sometimes such outcome occurs in relation to campaigns successfully performed and later on shamelessly 'replicated' by competitors.

The key problem lies with the fact that one of the basic principles commonly applied to IP rights sets that you cannot protect (e.g. through copyright provisions) 'ideas', but only the tangible results of their execution.