Graduation theses are among the works protected by Copyright law (Law no. 633 of 22/04/1941). Article 1 states that “this law protects the works of the mind having a creative character and belonging to literature, music, figurative arts, architecture, theatre, or cinematography, whatever the style or form of expression”. Article 2 of the same law includes a list of non-exhaustive examples of protected subject matters and explicitly mentions scientific works among them. According to national jurisprudence a graduation thesis is a work of the mind which can be protected in accordance with copyright law.
Copyright law protects the style, not the idea, of a work. The style must have a particular degree of creativity and novelty. The student who has written the thesis is considered its author; therefore, he/she fully owns the moral and economic rights to it.
The results of a research activity carried out by a student for his/her thesis project can be worth being protected by Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights (for instance, a patent) or copyright (for example, software and works of industrial design).
All students are required to get acquainted with these Regulations.