4 March 2019
On February 20, 2019, the Italian Council of Ministers adopted Legislative Decree no. 15, a trademark reform package amending Italian Legislative Decree no. 30 of February 10, 2005 (also known as the Intellectual Property Code), in order to implement European Directive no. 2015/2436 “to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks” and to bring national legislation in line with EU Regulation no. 2017/1001 “on the European Union trade mark.”
The new legislation introduces numerous new features to Italian trademark law, including a new type of trademark, the certification mark, and the explicit extension of the exclusive rights of trademark owners to packaging, labels, tags, security or authentication devices.
On February 19, 2019, the Council of Ministers adopted Legislative Decree no. 18, also amending the Intellectual Property Code to amend the national legal framework per the EU Regulation no. 1257/2012 on unitary patent protection. In accordance with the European Regulation, it is now possible to obtain unitary patent protection in all European countries participating in the enhanced cooperation, through a single centralized procedure.
