Incentives for SMEs still available

12 December 2011

One week from the initial term for submitting applications (November 2 2011), incentives from the Ministry of Economic Development are still available for small and medium-sized Italian enterprises for the filing and exploitation of IP rights.

Despite the huge interest sparked by the two announcements at the time of their publication, also consideringand the remarkable amount of funds allocated (€45 million Euros), the requirements for acceding to the incentives are rather strict and need to be carefully evaluated by the applicants.

With respect to the first initiative, which that provides for monetary awards for the filing of Italian patent applications and their extension abroad, for example, it is necessary to check not only that the filing date of the patent is subsequent to the dates set by the announcement (January 1, 2011, or for PCT applications January 1, 2010), but also that the following prosecution steps required for demonstrating the status of the application – and thus the issuance of the EPO search report on Italian applications or the payment of the examination fee for EPO and PCT applications – were carried outr after the dated of the publication of the announcements (August 3, 2011), but before the submission of the admittance application.

Neither the aAdmission to the second initiative relating to the exploitation of patents is also not that smootheasy. The Italian Patent Office (PTO) has clarified that the granted patents which only Italian national patents (including utility models) may entitle tocan apply for an investment grant are only Italian national patents (including utility models). Furthermore, the PTO has specified that also for this initiative EPO and PCT pending applications will only be taken into consideration only if claiming an Italian priority.

In the next few days the PTO should issue a communication notifying the number of applications received and the funds still available.