The protection of industrial design as works of applied art in Italy and China: the case of Ikea Systems b.v. v. Taizhou Zhongtian Plastic co., l.t.d.

Abstract

Industrial design is increasingly playing a significant role in every national industry and gives the product and the company a competitive advantage in the global market. For this reason, it is essential for international companies to equip themselves with instruments that, on one hand, offer legal protection to their design works and, on the other, represent an incentive for innovation, creativity, research, and development. If companies fail in giving an appropriate protection to their design works, the economic losses can be heavy. The following thesis intends, therefore, to analyse the legal doctrine dedicated to the works of industrial design both in Italy, in the first chapter, and in China, in the second chapter, and the differentiation between Patent and Copyright, focusing on the requirements needed by design works to be protectable by Copyright as works of applied art. The third chapter presents a case study regarding the famous ready-to-assemble furniture enterprise Inter Ikea Group and the Chinese Company Taizhou Zhongtian Plastic Co., Ltd for a dispute over copyright infringement. The case study is supported by the translation and analysis of the original text of the Court judgment.