Protecting Intellectual Property Rome

Protecting the Intellectual Properties of your Business in Rome

A trademark is a distinctive name, symbol, motto, design or other device associated with a product or a service, identifying a specific company. A patent is the exclusive right, granted by the government, to make use of an invention for a specific period of time, benefiting from its commercial profits.

Companies can protect their intellectual property through:

industrial property rights, like patents, utility models, designs, trademarks, plant variety rights and geographical indications. These must be registered in each individual EU country, so if you have already protected them in some other EU country, you will need to protect them in Italy too. Protection is not automatically extended. copyrights that cover original literary and artistic works, music, television broadcasting, software, databases, advertising creations and multimedia. These are granted automatically, with no need for formal registration, but you can register them at SIAE in order to provide a more formal proof of your authorship. Commercial strategies such as trade secrets, confidentiality agreements or rapid production.

Patents are national rights delivered by the national patent offices. There is no single patent granting protection throughout the EU. A single application for a European patent from the European Patent Organization (EPO) provides national protection in those European countries which are members of the EPO, and selected by the applicant. The Patent Cooperation Treaty simplifies international application.
Trade mark and design rights may be registered at Italian or Community level.

Intellectual property rights are still chiefly protected by Italian rather than EU laws. Italy adopted European rules on trademarks in 1992 with the Legislative Decree of 4th December 1992, no. 480.

In Italy patents and trademarks are assigned by the Italian Patent and Trademark Office.

To register a trademark it is necessary to apply to the Chamber of Commerce of Rome or send a registered letter with a form of acknowledgement of receipt (raccomandata con ricevuta di ritorno) to the Italian Patent and Trademark Office based in Rome.

Inventors may go to the Trademarks and designs registration office of the European union (UAMI) to extend the intellectual property rights of a trademark to include the whole EU.

To extend an Italian trademark in non-European countries it is necessary to apply to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) (based in Geneva) for an international registration, following which WIPO forwards the applications to non-European states.

In Rome, the Chambers of Commerce provide support for businesses that have registered a trademark. Furthermore, enterprises wishing to invest in research, development and innovation may benefit from financing provided by the Framework Programme Agreements ( Accordi di Programma Quadro, APQ) which are strategic agreements made between government and the regions.