The new Industrial Property Code is now law. The Chamber of Deputies finally approved the draft law amending the Industrial Property Code, a reform that is part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, under the competence of the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy.
The measure provides that also in Italy, as in the rest of the main Western countries, the patent originating from the research carried out by researchers of universities, public research bodies, Institutions of hospitalization and scientific care will be owned by the structure. This will facilitate the transfer of technology and also the exploitation of inventions. The new Article 65 of the measure also contains the regulation of inventions that are generated by the research activity financed by companies, ensuring the maximum flexibility of relations between these and university structures, on the basis of criteria that will be established within 60 days by the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy, in agreement with the Ministry of University and Research.
Other innovations introduced by the reform include the possibility of obtaining ad hoc protection for designs and models presented at national and international fairs; attention to the fight against counterfeiting, with the possibility of seizing counterfeit products displayed at fairs, and the strengthening of the system of safeguards to protect geographical indications, a fundamental heritage for Italy, with the widening of the hypothesis in which it is possible to activate the procedure of opposition against imitative marks of the PDO, which have always been a source of pride for Made in Italy.
Another important novelty is the introduction of the possibility of paying the patent filing fees not only at the same time as the filing of the patent application, but also later; this is of paramount interest to companies, also in terms of attracting investment.