Patent registration in Italy. Italy, officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy, is a country consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Alps and several islands surrounding it. Italy has an advanced economy. The country is the eighth-largest by nominal GDP (third in the European Union), the eighth-largest by national wealth, and the third-largest by central bank gold reserve. It ranks highly in life expectancy, quality of life, healthcare, and education. The country is a great power and it has a significant role in regional and global economic, military, cultural, and diplomatic affairs. Accordingly, many businesses want to enter this market and one of the most important preparations a business needs to take before expanding to this country is to learn the procedure of patent registration in Italy.
Patent in Italy
In Italy, a patent is temporary ownership of an invention given by the Government to the patentee. During the patent’s term, the patentee will have the right to exclude third-party actions related to the protected subject such as manufacture, commercialization, use, and others.
To protect an invention through patenting means to prevent its unauthorized exploitation by competitors who were not involved in nor bore the invention’s research and development costs.
To be patentable in this country, an invention must meet the requirements of novelty, inventiveness, and industrial applicability.
However, the law of Italy does provide for a 6 months grace period. This means that if the subject of the patent application is disclosed publicly within 6 months from the filing date, the application will still be considered valid.
The disclosure might be resulted from:
– Applicant or his/her predecessor in title;
– An evident abuse by a third party in relation to the applicant or his/her predecessor in title.
Necessary documents for patent registration in Italy
The necessary documents for patent registration in Italy include:
- The request to grant a patent (patent application);
- Detailed information on the applicant(s) including the applicant’s and inventor’s names, addresses, citizenships, etc.;
- A description of the invention;
- A signed and stamped power of attorney by the applicant(s);
- A copy of the amendments (if any);
- Priority documents (if any).
- Other required documents.
To claim priority, the applicant needs to submit the priority document within 6 months from the filing date or within 16 months from the date of earliest priority.
The procedure for patent registration in Italy
To obtain a patent in Italy, the applicant needs to file their patent application to the IP Office of Italy.
In Italy, the patent registration process is a little bit different than other countries’ registration processes.
Specifically, the Italian patent application claiming priority only undergoes the formal examination.
However, the normal patent application first filed in Italy (i.e. which does not claim priority) undergoes both formal and substantive examination as usual.
If there are no errors found in the examinations and all the fees have been paid in full, the patent will be granted to the applicant.
The patent in Italy will be valid for 20 years from the filing date.
To maintain this validity, the applicant needs to pay the maintenance fees yearly starting from the 5th year and become payable after the grant.
If in some cases, the maintenance fees are due while the patent application is still pending, they should be paid within 4 months from the date of grant.
All subsequent annual fees should be paid in advance before the last day of the month containing the anniversary of the filing date.
The IP Office of Italy does provide for a grace period of 6 months in which the late payment fee might be paid with a corresponding surcharge. It is possible to pay the annuities in an accumulated manner.
It takes an average of 2.5 – 3 years from filing up to the granting of a patent in Italy.
You can find the list of Italy IP Firms here.