EVEN A WINE GUIDE IS A CREATIVE WORK.

“Significant” similarities between the guide published by Bibenda Editore—formerly “Duemilavini,” now “Bibenda”—and the AIS’s “Vitae,” both in terms of physical format and in the descriptive entries for data regarding wineries and their products, as well as “strong elements of similarity in the sequence of topics”: it is with these words, found in the text of the ruling issued by the judges of the Ninth Civil Section of the Court of Rome, that the first-instance proceedings regarding the plagiarism complaint filed by Bibenda Editore against AIS come to a close, following the conclusion, in 2015, of the collaboration between Bibenda and AIS.

Shortly after the termination of the relationship under which Ais had for years purchased the Bibenda guide to distribute to its members, the Association published its own guide, titled “Vitae,” which, however, appeared to the authors of “Bibenda” to be too similar—in a variety of respects—to the one they had created according to very specific editorial criteria. Criteria which, according to the ruling, are sufficiently similar to those adopted by AIS for “Vitae” to justify a finding of infringement: the Court upheld Bibenda Editore’s claims and prohibited the publication of future editions of “Vitae” unless these similarities are substantially eliminated. Ais was also ordered to pay damages (yet to be quantified) to Bibenda Editore.

According to the court’s ruling, “an examination of the guide published by the defendant (ais) reveals significant similarities with the Bibenda guide in terms of the book’s size, the material used for the cover, the binding, the typeface, and the format.”

Further notable similarities can be found in the winery profiles; in both guides, information regarding the winery’s name, address, website, email address, year founded, ownership, bottles produced, hectares of vineyards, direct sales, winery tours, introductory text, wine name, type, grapes, alcohol content, price, bottles produced, tasting notes, winemaking, and food pairings.

It is also common to rate products using symbols placed on the right-hand side of the pages.

“As already noted, the two guides show strong similarities in the order of the topics (…)”.

Based on these arguments, the Court granted the claims brought by Bibenda Editore and prohibited the Italian Sommelier Association from publishing the Vitae guide in future editions, unless it makes appropriate changes to distinguish it substantially from the Bibenda guide.