Software and
Databases
Italy adheres to the European Patent Convention and the Italian
Patent Law and its interpretation are in accordance with the EPC
and the tendency of the European Patent Office.
According to section 52 of the EPC, article 45 Legislative Decree
No. 30/2005 states that programs for computers, if considered
as such, are not considered as patentable.
After the TRIPS Agreement, that does not exclude software patentability,
and the recent international developments (mainly in USA and Japan),
that allow software patentability, a new interpretation of section
52 of the EPC is presently being asserted that restricts the prohibition
to patentability and considers software inventions having a technical
nature, i.e. software inventions being technical solutions to
technical problems, (and business method inventions implemented
by means of technical software as well) as patentable.
Therefore, if a software invention is a technical contribution
to the state of the art, such software invention shall be patentable
at the EPO and in Italy as well. This is, for instance, the case
of an inventive software that implements a process to make a computer
working through an improved resource management or that controls
a manufacturing process or that accomplishes an automation process
or that realises a method of processing data representing physical
entities
. A patent protects the algorithms and/or the logic underlying
the software, independently of its specific implementation.
Barzanò & Zanardo has specific expertise in software
field and may give the best technical and legal assistance in
software patent cases.
Copyright
Italian Copyright Law provides protection for any original computer
program, expressed in any form. In particular, any original computer
program listing may be protected by copyright, while the algorithms
and/or the logic underlying a program listing are excluded from
copyright protection.
A published program, i.e. a program for which activities for making
profit from it have begun, may be registered in the special Public
Register for computer programs that is managed by SIAE (Authors
and Editors Italian Society). Such registration is accomplished
through filing a copy of the program (preferably both the source
code and the executable code) stored in a storage medium, as a
CD ROM, and an application containing general information on the
author(s) and on the applicant(s) and a brief program technical
and functional description.
All the documents filed but the copy of the program are laid open
to the public. The copy of the program is available only to judicial
authority competent in a concerned case.
An unpublished program, i.e a program for which activities for
making profit from it have not yet begun, is considered as unpublished
literary work and therefore may be registered in the concerned
special Register at SIAE through filing a copy of the program
(preferably both the source code and the executable code) stored
in a storage medium and an application containing general information
on the author(s) and on the applicant(s) and elements identifying
the program.
Database Protection
According to European Union Directive No. 96/9 dated March 11,
1996, it is allowed to databases a protection on two levels.
The first level concerns the database structure, not considering
the content, and, if such structure is original and creative,
the protection allowed is the copyright.
The second level concerns the database content, i.e. the information
stored in the database, and, even if the database structure is
neither original nor creative, the protection allowed is the so-called
"sui generis" protection.
Such protection is very close to the copyright protection and
it shall be granted to databases produced by citizens of a state
member of the EU or by persons usually residing in the EU or by
foreigner companies having a business office in the EU. The term
of the "sui generis" protection is 15 years as from
the date of the completion or of the disclosure of the database.
Such term may be renewed if subsequent updates and modification
involve significant investments.
Presently, in Italy the copyright protection covers both structure
and contents of a database.
