Wine Law

15 d’arte, as designation for wine products, commercial name, domain name and advertisement. Indeed, the use of the challenged designation has been considered in infringement of the designation of origin “Amarone Della Valpolicella DOCG”, constituting an act of unfair competition, according to Article 2598 of the Italian Civil Code. It is interesting to recall that the Court of Venice has stated that the violation of a designation of origin or a geographical indication may be recognised also in case of reproduction of a single element of the relevant DO or GI. As a matter of fact, in this case, the infringer did not entirely reproduce the “Amarone Della Valpolicella DOCG”, using only the term Amarone. Furthermore, the Court has also declared the invalidity of the trademark registered by Le Famiglie dell’Amarone d’arte, which claimed, after a limitation, that all the products bearing the sign were referred to wine products, realised in full compliance with the government of use of the designation of origin “Amarone Della Valpolicella DOCG”, despite the fact that the sign was not registered in class 33 for wine products, but only for marketing activities and fair trades (classes 35 and 41). Consequently, the Court has also inhibited any activity, aimed at promoting the “Amarone Della Valpolicella DOCG”. As already recalled before, another recent case, concerning the reproduction of a famous wine designation of origin, is that decided by the Court of Florence, with its ruling of 21 October 2015. In this model-fact situation, the Court has sanctioned the use of the designation “Nobile Prima”, in consideration of the prior well-known trademarks “Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano”, whose designation is also protected as a designation of origin (DOCG). The most interesting aspect of the case is that the double title offered by the relevant sign has brought the Court to separate, in the arguments of the ruling, the possible double protection, deriving from the collective geographical trademark, as well as from the designation of origin. As a matter of fact, the Court has applied the rules of the Italian IP Code for the assessment of the trademark’s infringement and the rules against unfair competition, for the violation of the designation of origin. Consequently, the use of the trademark “Nobile Prima” has been judged as a case of infringement of the collective geographical trademark “Vino Nobile di Montepulciano”, according to Article 20 of the