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TRADEMARK IN ITALY |
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Registering a trademark enables to obtain an exclusive protection with regard to the products and/or services belonging to the classes of goods indicated upon filing.
All new signs capable of being represented graphically may be registered as trademarks, provided they are able to distinguish the products and/or services of a firm from those of the other firms.
The signs which may constitute a trademark may comprise words, drawings, letters, digits, sounds, shape of the product or of its package, combinations and chromatic hues, etc.
The trademark must fulfill the fundamental requirements of novelty, originality and ability to distinguish.
The trademark is new if it cannot be confused with prior distinctive signs that are identical, or otherwise can be confused with it, used by others as marks, firms or signs for identical and/or similar products and/or services.
The trademark has the ability to distinguish when it is able to make the marked products and/or services recognizable in clear and evident fashion with respect to identical and/or similar products and/or services present on the market.
The trademark is original if it does not consist of a generic and descriptive indication of the marked products and/or services.
The trademark, moreover, must not be such as to deceive consumers with regard to the origin and quality of the marked products and/or services.
Filing an application for a trademark before the U.I.B.M. (Ufficio Italiano Brevetti e Marchi, Italian Patent and Trademark Office) entitles the Applicant to the right of exclusive use in Italy (production, marketing, importing) of the trademark for the products and/or services indicated in the application.
The registration of a trademark has a duration of 10 years from the filing date, indefinitely renewable.
The U.I.B.M. conducts solely a formal review of the filed application, without carrying out an exam of its merit, i.e. without conducting a priority search and a novelty exam, to evaluate the presence of patentability requirements.
Therefore, the trademark is to be considered valid until proven otherwise (so-called "presumption of validity"), which an interested third party may do at any time.
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