The Italian Supreme Court has issued a decision that some TV formats can take advantages of copyright protection.
As it is well-known many countries around the world don’t acknowledge specific copyright protection for TV formats mainly because they don’t fit well in the definition for such protection.
In the Italian case, however, the court considers these formats as eligible for copyright protection if they can meet some requirements such as identification of the structural elements of the story, as well as its space and time collocation, the main characters and the main thread of the plot. In addition, the structure must be repeatable and possessing at least a modicum of creativity.
More information here.
Source: IP Kat.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PLANET 