Intellectual Property
Guidelines for Patent (Intellectual Property) Protection
 
INFM offers researchers, who have realised inventions within the Institute's research  activities (institutional research or collaborative research), a support service for the protection and exploitation of intellectual property, which includes the analysis of patentability requirements of the invention and of patent protection, followed by a market analysis and the transfer of the technology towards industry.

INFM has acknowledged the Italian Code for Industrial Property, in force from 19 March 2005. By virtue of article 65, a researcher employed by a University, or a public administration is the exclusive owner of the patentable invention of which he/she is author, provided the invention is conceived within a “free research” activity.

To benefit from this service, researchers have to assign the invention rights in INFM’s favour by signing the proper agreement form (“Transfer Act” - file PDF; italian ). On the other hand, INFM will grant the inventors 50% of the net revenues of any deal deriving from the patent exploitation.

On the contrary, , researchers who have realised inventions within research activities developed by INFM and do autonomously apply for a patent, have to inform INFM  about the application (file ZIP; italian) and guarantee the Institute with at least 30% of the net revenues deriving from the exploitation of the patent they could take up.

Please look at the Patent Protection Procedure below, to request INFM support for technology protection.

For further information please contact: Silvia Cella and Alessia Naso

 
Patent Protection Procedure
 
Patent proposals should be submitted to the Valorisation of Results office (Patent Office) , which will carry out a preliminary investigation on the fulfilment of patentability requirements (novelty, inventive step) in order to provide rights on the invention through a national or international patent application

  • First filing

    Patent proposals to be evaluated, have to be submitted to the INFM Patent Office, using the “Request of Analysis” form (file PDF - italian), duly filled in according to the instructions given therein.
    This document must be completed carefully in order for the patentability examination of the invention to be done accurately.

    The coordinator of the inventor’s group must send the whole documentation to the INFM Patent Office  both electronically (patent@infm.it ) and in paper (C.so Perrone, 24 – 16152 Genova).

    The examination of patent proposals consists in the following steps:
    • search in the patent literature;
    • analysis of previously published documents (scientific and patent literature);
    • evaluation of novelty and innovativeness;
    • evaluation of industrial applicability;
    • draw up of a final report on the patentability of the invention and its industrial capacity (or potential).
    The preliminary investigation results in an opinion about the opportunity to proceed with a patent application filing. Typically, the first filing is for an Italian patent.
  • Renewal of an existing patent
    In Italy patent applications are automatically renewed for the first four years after the filing date. The renewal for the fifth year is bound to an internal evaluation of the development of the relationship with industries and the degree of progress of the technology concerned.
  • Foreign extension of Italian patent application
    The extension of a patent abroad has to be supported by technical and financial considerations by the inventors. The procedure requires a new and accurate search in the patent literature, and an evaluation of the degree of progress of the technology, with a particular focus on patent documents (anteriority). The foreign extension has to be applied within 12 months from the filing date,

    Before filing an extension application abroad, INFM prepares a final report in which the time frame, costs, extension countries, industrial connections and collaborations are considered.


    Download (italian document):

    •   Request of Analysis form

    •   Transfer Act

    •   Patent application communication