We take this opportunity to kindly inform you about some important changes concerning the territorial jurisdiction for intellectual property, competition and corporate law cases involving foreign companies in Italy.

According to Article 10 of the Law Decree No. 145 of December 23, 2013 –converted into Law by Law No. 9 of February 21, 2014 – all civil suits concerning intellectual property, competition, and corporate law to be filed in court from February 22, 2014, the jurisdiction over which pertains to Commercial Courts (Tribunali delle Imprese)and in which at least one party – either the plaintiff or the defendant – is a company that has its registered office outside of Italy (even if it has a secondary office in Italy), shall be dealt with exclusively by one of the following eleven Commercial Courts: Bari, Cagliari, Catania, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Rome, Turin, Venice, Trento and Bolzano/Bozen.

The purpose of such a measure is to attract foreign investments to Italy by making it simpler for foreign firms to identify which Italian court would have jurisdiction over their case should they start or get involved in a judicial controversy in Italy.

As IdeaLEX Law Firm, whose main offices are in Bologna and Milan, has affiliates in all the Italian cities listed above, and considering that Mrs. Lavinia Savini is mainly located in Paris, we may provide French firms with full protection in legal matters within the jurisdictional province of any Italian court.