presumed to be of equal value, unless there is written proof of a different agreement”. However, only those who have made a real creative contribution participate in the communion, not those who have simply made available the technical means by which the work has been created, or those who have materially put it into practice following the instructions of others; moreover, when the work consists of several divisible creative contributions, having the character of autonomous creations, the discipline of communion does not apply, but there is the hypothesis of the collective work, of which the author (and holder of the exclusivity) is considered to be the one who has organized these different contributions, it being understood that he must first have obtained the consent of the authors of the individual parties to the inclusion in the work. IV. THE ENFORCEMENT OF IP RIGHTS IN THE GASTRONOMY FIELD: THE NEED FOR A PRAGMATIC APPROACH Of course, the choice of appropriate protection must be made on a case-bycase basis and often the possibility of using several legal frameworks cumulatively should also be considered, each for the particular kind of protection it can offer. Again, it is hardly possible to draw up rankings: infringement affects all the rights that can be taken into account in the food sector, from trademarks (and PDOs/ PGIs), including those relating to the shape of products and their packaging (also in the form of the increasingly frequent look-alike), to violations of designs and models and patents, without forgetting forms of hooking and outright deception, which are becoming increasingly widespread in social media. In fact, even for food creations, the new media and the spread of social channels represent both opportunities and threats, which must be managed in the best possible way. On the one hand, they allow easier access to widespread recognition and diffusion, even for less structured subjects or those with fewer resources; on the other hand, however, they multiply the opportunities for copying and even parasitic exploiting the creations of others. Careful monitoring and cost-benefit assessment also have to be carried out in order to choose the most appropriate means of defending, contractualising and exploiting one’s own assets in this field, which also require a creative approach on the part of lawyers. 271 THE PROTECTION OF FOOD CREATIONS
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==