Main Theme Session at UIA Congress in Florence

On our first day in our Main Theme we considered the Protection of Creativity in the areas of Art, Fashion and Design.

We were delighted to welcome a range of distinguished speakers to cover this topic: Cristina Acidini, the Superintendent of Polo Museale di Firenze; Stefano Alessandrini, Consultant to the Italian Ministry of Culture, Monica Dugot from Christie’s in New York; Enrico Minio, Director of Fondazione Roberto Capucci; and Raffaello Napoleone, CEO of Pitti Imagine.

In some respects, the issues were uncontroversial in the sense that we all recognise that the efforts to protect cultural objects described by Stefano Alessandrini are valuable, though Stefano provided us with a fascinating insight into his work in preventing the theft of and recovery of cultural objects.

In other respects more difficult issues were raised. So we looked at the connection between Art, Fashion and Design which left us with the question of what is acceptable in terms of being inspired by others’ works rather than copying them. This led to a more in-depth examination of the legal issues on the following day with a wide range of speakers from the UIA Art Law, Fashion Law and IP Commissions who looked at these issues from Europe to North America, North Africa to China and South America to the Middle East.       

Ian de Freitas
President of the Intellectual Property Law Commission