Under Italian law, a wide range of intellectual works and efforts enjoy copyright protection, such as artistic, literary, theatrical and musical works, films and visual arts. Copyright also extends to scientific or didactic texts, architectural works, radio and television productions, photographs, the work of interpreters, translations, minimally original music collections, software, etc.

Copyright exists in the author’s favour from the moment the work is created and does not require any specific registration to be valid and enforceable.

In addition to national copyright laws and to laws implementing European Union directives, Italy applies the following main international conventions:

The Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works (the Paris text of July 24, 1971)

The Universal Copyright Convention (the Paris text of July 24, 1971)

the GATT-TRIPs Agreement (Agreements on trade related aspects of industrial property rights) of April 15, 1994.

The holder of copyrights may request the seizure at customs of goods infringing those rights.

Generally, copyrights in Italy last until 70 years after the death of the author/creator, but for certain rights, duration may vary. A special registration procedure, albeit completely optional, is provided for software.

Additional information is provided in this section’s FAQs.

For advice on how to protect copyrights, please contact us.

Download PDF