but which allow us to understand the specificities of the haute cuisine sector, a niche with unique characteristics. Another case of interest, involving Italian chef Giancarlo Perbellini, concerns design and even patents. The chef has tried to protect his iconic dish, Milanese cotta e cruda, through different legal titles. On the one hand, the aesthetic appearance of the dish, with its particular geometry of overlapping raw meat and breading, has been registered as a European Community design. In this case, the protection prevents the imitation of the aesthetic appearance of the dish and its particular presentation. Once again, however, it should be remembered that the protection granted by all the legal titles analysed does not include the content of the recipe itself. At the same time, chef Perbellini has obtained a patent on the cooking process of his dish (Italian patent no. IT201900014289). In these cases, in any case, patents appear to be used more as a promotional and marketing tool, aimed at communicating the uniqueness and originality of the dish, rather than as a necessary form of protection against imitations. The cases analysed involving two great Italian chefs show how gastronomy can become an interesting field of experimentation for IP law. The legal protection of recipes, which has been observed from different perspectives, has limitations that are difficult to overcome, and which often fall within the scope of the interests of the creators of the recipes themselves. TASTE AND COPYRIGHT AND CONCLUSIONS A final issue to explore, which goes even beyond any form of recipe protection, is related to the possibility of protecting tastes and flavours under copyright law. This is a controversial and debated matter, which arouses both fascination and a certain amount of perplexity. This is not mere theoretical speculation, as an important ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union has dealt precisely with it. The case concerns a Dutch cheese, Heksenkaas, created in 2007 by a Dutch producer. Levola, the cheese manufacturer, which had in the meanwhile obtained a process patent, sued a competing company that produced another cheese with a flavour and texture considered to be almost identical. In challenging the offer on sale of the cheese, Levola argued that the flavour of its product was an intellectual creation and, as such, likely to be protected by copyright. Following the first instance ruling, which rejected Levola’s claim on the grounds that the company had not identified the distinctive elements that gave the product its own original character, the Dutch Court of Appeal referred 215 PROTECTION OF RECIPES AND TASTE UNDER ITALIAN LAW
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