Copyright
Copyright law applies to nearly all creative and intellectual works. Copyright is a collection of rights granted to artists, authors, musicians, and other creators of original works which protects the form of the creative expression but not the expressed idea. The laws protect against the unauthorized copying, distribution, and public performance of creative works. The law that regulates copyright in Italy is the Copyright Act (Law 22 April 1941, n. 633) (in italian only) . Italian copyright law was recently amended by Law 21 May 2004, n. 128 (in italian only) on the illegal electronic dissemination of intellectual property. Newer laws containing directives for universities and research in particular are Law 31 March 2005 n. 43 (in italian only) , Legislative decree 16 March 2006 n. 140 and Law 9 January 2008, n. 2 page 45 (in italian only) .
In 2021, Italy transposed the European directive of 2019 (Dir. 2019/790/EU on copyright and related rights in the digital single market) with the Legislative decree 177/2021 which introduces extensive changes in law 633/ 1941.
For more details please check FAQs on copyright for consumers (europa.eu)
SISSA and copyright
The ownership of the intellectual works produced at SISSA at least initially belongs to the SISSA authors who can then decide which rights to maintain and which to transfer to a publisher. In the current system, a SISSA authors typically signs a standard publisher copyright agreement, which transfers copyright exclusively to the publisher. After signing such a contract, the author no longer has rights to the work, except as described in the contract with the publisher.
However, authors can sometimes manage to retain the copyright or to negotiate with the publisher in order to reuse their work by using an addendum to the publication contract. An addendum is a legal instrument which modifies the agreement and allows you to retain some of yours rights (such as to place your paper in an institutional repository). One example is the SPARC Author Addendum, which is a free resource developed by SPARC in partnership with Creative Commons and Science Commons, which are established non-profit organizations that offer a range of copyright options for many different creative endeavours.
Creative Commons
In alternative the authors can use one of the Creative Commons licenses that refer to a form of rights protection where the creator has chosen to allow certain rights such as limited use, distribution and reproduction to become public provided the work is properly attributed. In this case the author retains copyright but gives the publisher a non-exclusive license to publish his/her work.
Here more details: When we share, everyone wins - Creative Commons
Patent
If you want to file a patent, before any kind of publications or agreement with a publisher, and if you need information about intellectual property visit Valorisation and Innovation (sissa.it) and contact valorisation@sissa.it