Pubblicato sul “2015 International Property Rights Index”
Case Study on Fashion & Intellectual Property Rights: Globalisation: a new opportunity for counterfeiting? The Case of the Italian Fashion Industry
By Giammarco Brenelli, Chair of the Board of Trustee of Competere
The law on industrial property rights regards the definition and protection of new ideas applied to industry. It originally developed together with the industrial revolution, first in the single countries and later with international conventions.
With the advent of globalisation, however, it has become apparent that there are many gaps in the protection of ideas and innovation afforded by legislation, and in fact development on a global scale has brought with it the “poisoned fruit” of increased opportunity for counterfeiting.
The huge and easy profits from counterfeiting have attracted organised crime, with a consequent need for standardised protection and continuous updating of the remedial measures.
While the EU is still limited in its action in this sphere, some national legal systems are already reacting. Italy, for its part, in 2009 introduced new probative tools and effective precautionary measures to be implemented also before trial. From the criminal aspect, the law today gives stronger protection, not only of trademarks and patents but of a company’s entire heritage of know-how, and the action taken by damaged companies and their defence counsels is more incisive.