Computer Software

– Law No. 633 of April 22, 1941, as amended by Decree No. 518 of December 29, 1992 and its Implementing Regulations (copyright).
– Law No. 547 of December 23, 1993 (computer-related crimes).

Membership in International Conventions

– Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1886), as revised in Paris in 1971.
– Geneva Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1952), as revised in Paris in 1971.

Conditions of Software Protection

(A) Decree No. 518 of December 29, 1992 confirms the previous prevailing case law to the effect that computer programs are eligible for protection under the Copyright Law, specifically as literary works within the meaning of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Protection applies to the expression in any form of a computer program. Ideas and principles, which underlie any element of a computer program, including those which underlie its interfaces, are not protected; yet the term “computer program” includes their preparatory design material.

Unless otherwise provided by contract, where a computer program is created by an employee in the execution of his duties or following the instructions given by his employer, the employer is exclusively entitled to exercise all economic rights on the program. Under Copyright Law, unlawful copying of a computer program may be punished with a fine and/or imprisonment from three months up to three years. These penalties also apply to the act of putting into circulation, or possessing for commercial purposes, means, the sole intended purpose of which is to facilitate the unauthorized removal or circumvention of any technical device, which has been applied to protect the computer program.

A registration procedure of a computer program, which is not however mandatory for obtaining protection under Copyright Law, is open both to national and foreign residents with the SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori). The registration may constitute a good tool for providing prima facie evidence in terms of title, ownership and publication date of a program. The registration procedure provides for a sample of the program to be deposited on an optical support (a CD-ROM is the present requirement). The data concerning registrations, such as publication date and author, are open to public inspection and to computer search, whereas the sample of the program is kept secret within the archives of SIAE.

(B) Art. 45 of the Industrial Property Code (Legislative Decree No. 30 of February 10, 2005) strictly replicates Article 52 EPC: consequently, even though the patent law excludes the protection of computer programs per se, patent protection is in some cases possible in the case of software-related inventions.

(C) Further protection may be derived from the law against unfair competition, trademark law, legal regulations for contracts and Law No. 547 of December 23, 1993, which specifically contemplates as a crime the following:
– changing, modifying or deleting wholly or partly a computer program and/or preventing or endangering operation of a computer system by means of violence;
– damaging or destroying computer systems of public utility as well as data, information and programs contained therein and pertaining thereto;
– forging a public or private document stored in the form of computer data;
– unlawfully accessing a computer system protected by security measures;
– unlawfully obtaining, reproducing, disclosing, communicating or delivering codes, keywords and other means for accessing a computer system protected by security measures;
– disclosing, communicating or delivering a computer program (a so-called “virus”) prepared directly or by third parties for the purpose or to the effect of damaging a computer system, the data and the programs contained therein and related thereto;
– eavesdropping computer communications.