Italian Patent Filing Process

Filing of an Italian patent for an industrial invention

The filing of an Italian patent for an industrial invention with the U.I.B.M. (Italian Patent and Trademark Office) confers on the applicant the right to the exclusive exploitation in Italy (production, marketing, importation) of the invention claimed in the application for a period of 20 years from the filing date, subject to compliance with patentability requirements.

The content of the Italian patent application for an industrial invention remains secret for a period of 18 months from the filing date, after which it is made available to the public. The U.I.B.M. initially carries out a formal examination of the filed application; it then carries out a prior art search (as of 01/07/2008) with the issuance, within 9 months of filing, of a search report in order to assess the presence of the above-mentioned patentability requirements.

Together with the search report, the U.I.B.M. issues a ministerial letter requesting a comment on the documents resulting from the same search report: thus begins the Substantive Examination phase that can lead to the granting of the filing of the Italian patent.

A filing application for an Italian patent for Industrial Invention muA filing application for an Italian patent for Industrial Invention must include

an abstract, in which the invention is briefly introduced,
a description, in which the subject matter of the invention must be described sufficiently clearly, in at least one form of embodiment,
the claims, in which the essential features of the invention that are to be defended and protected and over which the exclusive right of exploitation is to be claimed must be defined,
and, if necessary, drawing plates in support of the description, in which the main form of embodiment and further variants are illustrated.

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Utility model patent in Italy

New models capable of conferring particular efficacy or convenience of application or use on machines, or parts thereof, instruments, tools or objects of use in general, such as new models consisting of particular conformations, arrangements, configurations or combinations of parts, may be the subject of a utility model patent.

As in the case of an industrial invention, the new model must meet the requirements of novelty, originality and industrial applicability. In that case, however, the new model must meet less stringent originality requirements than an industrial invention to obtain an Italian patent.

The filing of a utility model patent application with the U.I.B.M. (Italian Patent and Trademark Office) confers the right to the exclusive exploitation of the innovation claimed in the application for a period of 10 years from the filing date, subject to compliance with the criteria for patentability of the innovation (novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability).

The U.I.B.M. carries out only a formal examination of the filed application, without conducting a substantive examination (instead provided for industrial invention), i.e. carrying out a prior art search and a substantive examination, in order to assess the presence of the patentability requirements (novelty, inventive activity and industrial applicability). It follows that the patent is to be considered valid until proof to the contrary (so-called "presumption of validity") which can be provided by an interested third party at any time.

The content of the Italian utility model patent application remains secret for a period of 18 months from the filing date, after which it is made available to the public.