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Patents
What is a patent?
A patent is a legal title that gives its owner the exclusive right to exploit an invention in a given territory and for a certain period of time.
Patents may include: industrial inventions, utility models, new plant varieties.
In particular, the patent:
- guarantees its owner the right to prohibit third parties from producing, using, marketing, selling or importing the products covered by the patent
- is a territorial right, i.e. limited to the State or States in which the patent is filed: national, international or European patent
- it is a right limited in time: at the end of its period of validity, the patent cannot be renewed and becomes a collective good that anyone can commercially exploit
- after its registration, it is required to pay maintenance fees, otherwise the patent will lapse and become public domain
They cannot be patented:
- discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods
- plans, principles and methods for intellectual, play or business activities and computer programs
- Presentations of information
- animal breeds and biological processes for their production, unless they are microbiological processes or products obtained by these processes
- methods for the surgical or therapeutic treatment of the human or animal body and methods of diagnosis applied to the human or animal body
Why to file a patent
The patent is an important commercial tool for businesses as it allows them to protect their investments, preventing third parties from managing for free the results of their research and innovation activities; therefore, companies can benefit from additional economic resources through the economic management of their rights to use. For more information, please consult UIBM website.
Accessibility to the public
This is the date on which, after a period of secrecy, the content of the patent is made available to the public (description, drawings, etc...) through the publication in a database or official bulletin.
The patent is published 18 months after the date of filing, however the patent holder may decide to bring forward this date.
In this case, the period of secrecy becomes 90 days from the filing date (time reserved for the military authority to verify its interest in the patent).
Duration and maintenance fees
Once granted, the patent is valid from the date of filing of the application, however the effects towards third parties start from the date on which the application is made available to the public. Until that date, it is not possible to take action in cases of infringement against third parties because the patent is secret. To protect your rights, you can notify a copy of the application to the infringer and the effects of the patent application against the notified party start from the date of notification.
The patent has a different duration depending on whether it is an invention (20 years) or a utility model (10 years). On expiry, the patent cannot be renewed. During the period of validity, for a patent to be kept alive it is necessary to pay the maintenance fees required by the State in which it was filed. In Italy, in the case of a patent for invention the fee is annual, while in the case of a patent for utility model the fee is every five years.