The (legal) adventures of Zorro: an update on copyright and parody from the Italian Supreme Court
Written By
Giovanni Galimberti
Partner
Italy
As well as being one of the founding partners of our Italian operations, I'm now Managing Partner and head of our Italian Intellectual Property department.
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To what extent is it permissible to parody a copyright protected fictional character for advertising purposes? A recent judgment by the Italian Supreme Court shed some light on the limits of parody under both copyright and trade mark law: although for copyright purposes a link to the character is essential to any parody and thus permissible, the parody should not interfere with the character’s economic use as a trade mark.
