The following is a description of the most relevant aspects of the changes introduced to the Italian Industrial Property Code by the recently adopted Law n. 102/23.

New regime of ownership of inventions developed by researchers in universities and public research organizations

The most significant change concerns the regime of the ownership of the inventions created by researchers of the universities and public research organizations. According to the version of art. 65 of the Italian Industrial Property Code in force prior to the change, unlike for any other private or public employee, the exclusive rights to the patentable invention developed by a researcher employed by a university or a public research organization were allocated to the researcher, and not to the employer, even when the invention was the result of the activity carried out by the researcher in the performance of his/her inventive tasks. The rule (so called “professor privilege”), which had been introduced in 2001 with the aim of stimulating the research at university level, has been criticized since its adoption by several players including the universities which claimed that the regime affected their possibility to compete at international level with other universities.

The recently adopted reform reverses the rule by allocating the exclusive rights on patentable inventions created by the rese...