It is one thing to submit an application: for a new machine, a device that increases performance or energy saving, an innovative drug. Another is to ask, but how many of the patent applications that every year arrive on the tables of Epo engineers – the European Patent Office – pass the “caudine forks” of tests, checks and deserve – at the end of an examination which lasts for years – the patent “license” in Europe?
Confrontation with partners
According to data from Epo, the European Patent Office, between 2005 and 2015, the “grant rate“That is, the rate of issue of patents on the total number of applications presented has grown by 20% for the made in Italy (from 56 in 2005 to 76% in 2015). Followed by France (63 to 73 percent) and Germany (65 to 73 percent). A little further behind are Great Britain (50 to 60%) and the Netherlands (56 to 67%).
Precisely because the recognition process of a patent lasts, on average, at least 4 years “the comparative analysis over the period 2016-2021 – explained Domenico Golzio, director by Epo – may not be reliable. Better to take the period 2005-2015 for which you are sure that the process is completed ». Golzio also attributes the success of Italian growth to the fact that “since 2008, Uibm (the Italian Patent Office) and Epo have signed an agreement for which, on Italian applications, European patent office performs a prior art search and provides a preliminary examination on the novelty and inventive step. Together with the education and promotion activities aimed at SMEs with trade and territorial associations, it is undeniable that this agreement has meant that the “grant rate“The number of Italian applications has grown by 20 points”. After all, as Giovanni Casucci, partner at theIP department by EY Tax Law Firm «companies have developed the awareness that the patent is not just“ innovation ”but an index of financial management, a real wealth».
However, observes, critic, Vittorio Cerulli Irelli, partner of the Trevisan & Cuonzo studio: «The propensity for patenting of the Italian company is still too low. Our competitors’ economic systems patent much more, in absolute terms and in proportion to the population. Against 4,919 Italian patent applications submitted to the Epo, these are just 85 per million inhabitants, Germany has 309 and France 161. We are on par with the United Kingdom, which however has more of a service economy than manufacturing “.
Meanwhile, the Council of Ministers approved the bill introducing some amendments to the Industrial Property Code. Including Article 3 which provides for a reversal of the approach provided for in Article 65, ie the overcoming of the “professor’s privilege“. It means that the ownership of inventions made in the field of public research would no longer be owned by the individual professor or researcher, but by the university or research institution, aligning Italy with other European countries. “We will formulate our amendments – added Anna Maria Bardone, president of the Order of Industrial Property Consultants -. We appreciate that the government wants to simplify and digitize the administrative system for the protection of industrial property to make it more accessible, efficient and competitive ».