Unregistered design. An interesting ruling by the Court of Milan.

At the end of February, the specialized section of the Milan court issued an interesting ruling on the protection of unregistered designs in the textile field.
The lawsuit was filed by a well-known Italian cotton mill, historic in its history, specializing in the production of high-end shirt fabrics against an Italian competitor accused of copying 54 prototypes of original fabrics created by the plaintiff.
The Milan Court found that unregistered fabrics should indeed be granted protection under EC Regulation No. 6/2002, also considering that the defendant in the present case had never provided sufficient evidence of the lack of novelty and individual character of the design in question.
It's useful to remember that an unregistered design is granted protection if it's new and possesses individual character. To be considered new, the design must differ from previous designs in "irrelevant" details.
A design shall be deemed to have individual character if the overall impression it produces on the informed user differs significantly from the overall impression produced on such a user by any design which has been made available to the public.
Finally, it should be noted that the Court also found that the defendant's conduct violated the competition rules pursuant to Article 2598 of the Civil Code since the counterfeiting of the models, by diverting the plaintiff's significant research and development investments, had effectively allowed the defendant to enter the market at a reduced cost.