In the last century, since Duchamp's revolutionary "ready made" pieces, the traditional boundaries between art and industry have significantly faded. It is therefore essential for those working in the design field to have provisions and legal criteria to assist in better understanding when a certain piece of furniture can enjoy copyright protection. Considering the pivotal importance of industrial design for the Italian economy, the "Panton Chair" decision will have a significant impact across the industry.
In Italy, the most recent case of victory in the struggle to recognize the value of copyright is that of the Nathalie bed produced by Flou (designed by Vico Magistretti in 1978), for which the Court of Milan ordered the seizure of the copies copied from another Italian manufacturer.
But not only companies take action to protect the fruit of talent and economic investment. Even designers such as Charlotte Perriand, and recently her daughter Pernette with Jacques Barsac, have undertaken with success a long and difficult battle to assert their rights (see The Legacy of Charlotte ), as they believe that indiscriminate copying takes space away from other authors indirectly.