DLA Piper has offices in Milan and Rome. The IP practice is led by location head Giangiacomo Olivi, practice head Roberto Valenti (both partners) and associate Alessandro Ferrari. In 2010 Valenti was appointed chairman of the life sciences working group of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy. The practice has been going through a restructuring process over the past year and grew in number with the hire of four new IP lawyers at associate level from rivals including Trevisan & Cuonzo, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Hogan Lovells. A number of new clients have also started to instruct the firm.
In 2010, Valenti and Ferrari advised Rainbow Magic (HIT Entertainment, which distributes cartoons like Thomas the Tank Engine and Pingu) in negotiations for co-existence agreements with Rainbow publishers for CTM Rainbow Magic and local trade mark Rainbow MagicLand. Valenti and associate Elena Martini also advised Vodafone in a software copyright case and were active representing Taghleef Italy in a multi-jurisdictional case against Treofan.