In the build-up to next week’s Luxury Law summit in London, one of the the elder statesmen of luxury, Arrigo Cipriani, the son of Giuseppe, founder of the famous Venetian watering hole Harry’s Bar, complains that intellectual property law no longer serves the luxury industry. 

The spirit of luxury

Mr Cipriani is critical of the direction that intellectual property law is taking, and said: "The copyright world has become more and more complicated. The people who write the rules should be professors in mathematics problems rather than copyright law writers. There is too much space given to interpretation and very little space for the truth.”  Discussing the industry as a whole, he believes greater opportunities for the luxury sector over the next five years will come from bringing the formal and spiritual aspects of luxury together. He said: “I’d say do not forget the content which should always be inside any luxury form. The winner of the future is a perfect junction between the formal aspect and the spiritual part which is the result of thinking and the only possible meaning of luxury. Unfortunately, we are often witnessing that the contrary is taking place.” 

Called to the bar
In its heyday, the great and the good propped up at Harry's Bar, including James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Truman Capote, Orson Welles and Henry Fonda. The family took a flexible view on contracts. When the Cubist artist Georges Braque ambled in pleading poverty and offered a painting in exchange for food, Giusepple Cipriani refused the painting but told Braque: "I don't care if you don't have any money today, eat your fill and pay me when you do."If you would like to hear Arrigo Cipriani's views on luxury, he is addressing luxury leaders at the Luxury Law Summit on Tuesday 15 May. For further details contact benmartin@globalcitymedia.com.