Italy: Intellectual Property

A Chinese defendant successfully obtained conditional alignment of procedural deadlines in a patent infringement case before the Milan Local Division, despite the claimant's opposition based on the Hong Kong co-defendant's alleged refusal to accept voluntary service. The Court granted the alignment but required immediate acceptance of service by the unserved defendant as a precondition.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that national laws cannot allow preliminary injunctions to remain in force indefinitely without merits proceedings, prompting Italy to introduce a transitional regime through Decree-Law No. 100/2026. This creates a narrow 60-day window for respondents to challenge pre-existing injunctions while requiring right holders to urgently review their portfolios of preliminary injunctions to preserve them.

The Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics, published in June 2026, addresses fundamental questions about authorship, verification, and the use of work in AI systems that are now central to European litigation and legislation.