Summary
Pursuant to Article 5(3) of Regulation (EC) No 44/2001, Italian courts have jurisdiction – being the courts of the place where the harmful event occurred – over an action for interim relief brought against an English company for illegal exploitation of a database protected by copyright and of the trademarks of the plaintiff, an Italian company, through its web site. In fact, the alleged illegal activities have been carried out in Italy as the web site of the defendant is addressed exclusively to Italian users and is in direct competition with the web site of the plaintiff, which is also active on the Italian market. In an action for interim relief brought against an English company for illegal exploitation of a database protected by copyright and of the trademarks of the plaintiff through its web site, the actual existence of the rights claimed by the plaintiff on the basis of a contract previously entered into between the parties – which is not subject to the jurisdiction of national courts due to a clause providing for international arbitration – is irrelevant for the purpose of determining whether the court seised has jurisdiction, since in an action for interim relief the existence of said rights can be ascertained only incidentally, as per Article 6 of Law No 218/1995, for the sole purpose of determining the existence of a prima facie case (fumus boni iuris).