By Michel Jolicoeur of Racheli & C., Milan, Italy
Due to the dramatic growth of the virtual economy on the Internet and the acceptance of e-commerce in the mainstream marketplace in Italy over the last two years, the issue of protection of intellectual property rights on the Internet has acquired new importance and is having a profound impact on the application of IP laws by practitioners and the courts.
The authors wish to briefly overview the main areas of protection currently available to owners and operators of Internet web sites.
Patents
Italian IP laws have traditionally established protection for computer software on the basis of copyright law, and patent law in cases where the software is required as an integral functional element of a machine or for the functioning of an industrial method.
