European Patent Validation in Italy
Patent Services
Patent Services-Italian Patents, Italian Utility Models, Italian Designs.
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Italian Patents
Patentability conditions:
Worldwide novelty: the object of the patent must not have been advertised, exhibited, published or sold, by anyone, in Italy or elsewhere, before the filing date.
Inventive step: the object of the patent must not be obvious to the skilled man in the related technology field.
Industrial applicability.
Lawfulness: inventions that are contrary to morality or public order cannot be patented.
Failure to comply to any or all of these requirements results in the patent being declared invalid.
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Italian utility models
According to Italian Patent Law, a Utility Model protects an improvement (e.g. of the shape or of the combination of parts) of an already existing products.
Patentability conditions: the same as for patents.
Validity period: up to 10 years from the filing date.
Examination: The examination relates to formal requirements only.
Fees: when filing a Utility Model, the fee for the first-5-year period shall be paid. At the end of this first period, the maintenance fee for the second 5-year-period falls due.
Unpatentable subjects: the same as for patents.
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Italian designs
Validity conditions:
Novelty and “individual character”: an equal or similar model(s) shall not have been published, advertised, exhibited or be readily known to the informed user within the EU, before the filing date.
The applicant is allowed a 12-month-grace-period after the first public disclosure for filing a design application.
The model(s) must also have an “individual character”, that is it/they must give a different overall impression from any already known model(s).
Multiple applications: with a multiple design application in Italy, an applicant is allowed to file a single application for two up to infinitive models at a flat fee, provided that all models belong to the same Locarno class (i.e. all models of jewellery, all models of pottery etc.)
- Validity period: up to 25 years from the filing date.
- Examination: The examination relates to formal requirements only and not to novelty or individual character.
- Fees: when filing an Italian design application, official fees shall be paid for the first 5 years. Designs can be renewed for up to 4 subsequent 5-year-periods, upon payment of fees, for a maximum of 25 years of protection.
In the case of a multiple application, the whole renewal fee shall be paid for maintaining a reduced number of models.
