The introduction in Italy of the Jobs Act for self-employed workers (occurred with Law of May 22, 2017, no. 81, published in the Official Gazette on June 13 and enforced the following day) pursued the purpose of extending professionals' rights and protections, not missing to deal with intellectual property. In particular the Law considered, at art. 4, the hypothesis of freelance workers creating an original contribution or an invention when executing a work agreement, situation previously foreseen by art. 12bis of the Italian Law on copyrights and by art. 64 of the Italian Industrial Property Code, in accordance to which in such cases the principal was entitled to the rights of economic exploitation, without prejudice to the recognition to the author or inventor of such title. On the contrary the Legislator of 2017 stated that, in such hypothesis, the self-employed worker is entitled to the economic exploitation of the invention or creation, although he is acting in the context of an activity carried out in the principal's interest, unless the innovative activity itself is the subject of the working agreement, and therefore he is paid for it; in such hypothesis the worker shall be, in any case, recognized as author or inventor.
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