FILING REQUIREMENTS

Requirements for filing a patent application in Italy

A Power of Attorney, simply signed at the bottom by the applicant(s),without legalization is required. A separate Power of Attorney is necessary for each application unless the Attorney has been granted a General (or Cumulative) Power of Attorney.

Full name of the inventor(s) who must be designated by law.

Drawings (if necessary). The drawings may be filed in a temporary format but definitive drawings must follow in the proper format within two months from the filing date of the application in Italy.

If the priority rights deriving from a foreign patent application are to be claimed (Paris Convention), an authentic copy of the foreign patent application must be filed with the Italian Patent and Trademark Office, along with an Italian language translation, within six months from the filing date of the application in Italy. This term is non-extendable.

In the event that a patent application is filed in Italy with a priority rights claim (Convention cases) and the applicant for the Italian patent is different to the holder of the foreign priority application, an assignment of priority rights is required, which must be signed before a Notary Public on a date prior to the filing date of the Italian patent application or otherwise must include an express clause establishing that the rights have effect from a date prior to the filing date of the Italian patent application.

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