I study Gr Legalwith the members Luke Jupiter e Andrea Comelli (pictured), in defense of the Paduan software house Ap Systemspecialized in applications for the large-scale retail sector, has obtained from the Business Section of the Court of Venice as an emergency measure (both in the first instance and in the appeal stage) the revocation of a description – with rejection of all further precautionary measures – previously obtained by the supermarket cooperative Crude.
The software at issue, called Gesty, allows supermarkets to compare wholesale prices practiced by the purchasing center with those offered by other suppliers, allowing the generation of orders at the best commercial and availability conditions for the user.
The decision is of particular interest not only because it represents one of the very rare cases of revocation of a description already granted, but also because the lagoon judge held that the use of the software in question by the points of sale belonging to a commercial network does not constitute, on the part of the developer of the program, either a violation of the alleged commercial secrets operated by Crai (the price lists), or a violation of a database, not even a so-called of its own kindas there is no illicit extraction and reuse of a substantial part of this database, which in any case is not considered protectable by the Venetian Court. The panel, in fact, accepted Gr Legal’s arguments on this point and deemed non-existent not only the creativity of the database necessary for copyright protection but also the significant investments for its creation or updating (although Crai had affirmed its dynamic nature), and the creation of the same in the fifteen years preceding the filing of the appeal, or in the period of protection of non-creative databases.
