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1 October 2015Patents

Italy officially joins the unitary patent

Italy has officially added its name to the unitary patent, raising the total number of countries participating in the scheme to 26.

The country had previously opposed the patent framework because it believed it was discriminatory due to the exclusion of Italian as an official language. German, French and English are the official languages.

Spain and Italy had legally challenged the patent scheme on the grounds that it was discriminatory, but the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rejected Italy's claim last year and Spain's claim in May this year.

Italy had signalled its intent to join the patent after the CJEU’s ruling on Spain’s challenge. The country officially joined yesterday, September 30.

The country had already joined the Unified Patent Court (UPC).

A statement from the European Commission, published yesterday, said that Italy’s participation “will make the unitary patent even more attractive for companies and investors, who will be able to use the single procedure for the registration of patents in all participating countries”.

“Italy’s move to join the unitary patent is part of the significant progress made in the past few months—together with the agreement on the cost of patent protection and the ratification of the UPC by a number of EU countries—to make the unitary patent a reality,” the commission added.

Italy is the fourth biggest granter of patents in Europe.

The commission has urged all participating nations to ratify the agreement “as soon as possible”. So far, eight have ratified the agreement—Austria, France, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Malta, Luxembourg and Portugal—but 13 signatories are required for it to take effect and the list must include Germany and the UK.

The commission added that it would like to see the UPC come into force by the end of 2016.

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