About patent

A patent is an exclusive right confered by the State for a limited period on a new invention, involving an inventive step and (industrial applicability / susceptible of industrial application / industrial application ability).

The patent is an industrial property title, aimed at relating that the functional and technical aspects of an invention. This title is awarded only temporarily, for a maximum period of 20 years.

In addition to its time limit, the patent is limited in space: it is only valid in the country where it has been registered.

Most of the products that we consume, on a daily basis, comes from the creation of companies or individuals, who can protect, through the use of their patent, their know-how and above all monetize their research and development to particularly enable them to work on other projects and continue to invent.

Innovation is at the heart of the economic develpoment of our daily life through the use of patents.

Consequently, patents are a real business challenge; for, the success and especially the sustainability of your projects or your business depend mostly on your ability to generate revenue and imagine new products.

It is for these reasons that your invention deserves to be protected, regardless of its nature or destination.

By patenting your invention, you make your research and development profitable. Moreover, you ensure a strategic and commercial advantage against competition and trade globalization.

A patent always adds value to your project and legally protect it against competition.

The applicant is normally the owner of the patent, potientially jointly with others, for example, when a part of the invention was soldor or when several inventors have a common interest in the patent. A patent can of course be transferred to another person or be subject to licenses (referred to assignment or license).

The priority right allows patent applicants of a member of the International Union Countries for the protection of industrial property(also known as "Paris Union") to file extension requests in other member countries within no more than one year, starting from the date of the filing of a national application(Articles 5 and 6 of Law 17/97).

In principle, the right to patent an invention corresponds to its inventor, since this invention meets the requirements of patentability.

It may be different, if the invention was developed by an employee within an enterprise. In fact, the law provides a specific provision fo remployees inventions (Art.18 of Law 17/97); according to the conditions in which they were designed, the rights to the invention, and thus the choice whether or not to file a patent, return to the employee or the employer. In the latter case, the employee will be entitled to financial compensation.

That is why; the employee has an obligation to report any invention that he achieves to inform and allow his employer determining the rights he estimates to possess on the invention.

The purpose of the declaration is to define, eventually, who of the employee or the employer may file a patent.

The patent is an industrial property title related to thetechnical and functional aspect of a product, process, substance or method you invented and by which it is possible to solve a given technical problem.

An idea is not patentable; the technical means toits realization are. In this sense, the law provides a list of exclusions from patentability (Art. 23, 24 and 25 of Law 17/97):

• Discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
• Aesthetic creations;
• The presentations of information;
• Schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or in the economic field;
• Computer programs considered as such;
• Inventions opposite to public orderor decency;
• The methods of surgical or therapeutic treatment on human or animal body;
• The diagnostic methods practiced on the human or animal body;
• Plant varieties or animal breeds;
• Processes Essentially biological for the production of plantsor selection of animal races;

To be patentable, an invention must meet three criteria: