Annual Technical Report on Trademark Information Activities in 2022 submitted by Italian Patent and Trademark Office
I. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN TRADEMARK INFORMATION ACTIVITIES CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Outline of main policies and plans aimed at development of trademark information activities and expected time frames for their realization
The Italian Office is constantly evolving to improve its services for the users.
In June 2021 a national strategic plan on industrial property was approved at Ministerial level for the period 2021-2023. Its main goals are:
- improve the IP protection system,
- encourage the use of IP, particularly by SMEs,
- facilitate access to IP and promote patent awareness,
- ensure a stronger IP enforcement,
- strengthen the role of Italy at international global level.
In line with the implementation of its strategic plan, the main areas of interest of the Office in 2022 were the following:
- Definition and management of financial measures and projects for the promotion and valorization of industrial property rights (Marchi+ / Marchi Collettivi e di Certificazione);
- Implementation and development of the website MARCHIEDISEGNI.EU . The "Community Trademarks and Designs" project was born from the cooperation between the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy - Directorate General for the Protection of Industrial Property - Italian Patent and Trademark Office (UIBM). It is coordinated by INNEXTA - a consortium company of the Italian Chamber of Commerce System - as partner of UIBM. The initiative involves the implementation of various activities with the aim of providing greater awareness of the tools for protecting the intangible assets of companies. The protection of trademarks and designs is, in fact, a key element for companies that want to face and overcome commercial challenges, not only at the national but also at the EU level.
- Maintaining and developing relationships with business and user associations is also an important part of policy making in the field of trademarks. A consolidated network of 36 business and users associations is managed by the Italian Patent and Trademark Office. Its members are regularly updated on national, European and international IP dossiers. To this end, the Office organizes meetings twice a year at its headquarters and send them a monthly newsletter.
- New IT platform project
New projects launched or resumed this year in the context of the policies and plans mentioned above, short description: aims, partners, tasks
- Euipo TMView version upgrade .
- Introduction of the Trademark invalidity and revocation procedure at administrative level at the Office starting from December 29 2022.
- Customer care support service based on webchat: development started in 2022 for its implementation in 2023.
New IT Platform
The feasibility study of the new IT technical infrastructure was completed in 2022.
Based on the information provided by the interested stakeholders, the new infrastructure will make the management of the administrative procedures at the Office more efficient and will, above all, significantly expand the IP services offered to the users, innovating those that are already in place.
Activities are envisaged to start by March 2023 and the end of the project is envisaged by mid-2025 with a full live operational integration with the new platform by the end of 2025.
Major improvements expected after the Go-Live are:
- Improve the reliability and completeness of data. Currently not all information are easily accessible, and data must be previously analyzed, retrieved and enhanced to become useful and understandable.
- Simplify usability of the platform for internal and external users and make information more user-friendly.
- Improved services (filing system, examination system, databases), including the introduction of new features.
- Provision of new services to external partners (companies, researchers, development agencies, proxies, etc).
MARCHI+ call for proposals (with UNIONCAMERE as implementing agency)
The Marchi+2022 Call for Proposals, funded by the Directorate General for the Protection of Industrial Property - UIBM of the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy and managed by Unioncamere (Association of Italian Chambers of Commerce), aims at supporting link: micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in protecting trademarks abroad through the acquisition of specialized services:
Measure A: measures to facilitate the registration of European Union trademarks;
Measure B: measures to facilitate the registration of international trademarks.
Link: https://www.marchipiu2022.it/liniziativa (ITA link)
Promotion of collective and certification marks
The Call for Collective Marks 2022 supports activities to promote collective and certification marks abroad. The measure is funded by the Directorate General for the Protection of Industrial Property - UIBM of the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy and it is managed by its partner, Unioncamere. It is addressed to Associations representing production categories; protection consortia referred to in Article 53 of Law No. 128 of April 24, 1998; other association- or cooperative-type bodies. Financial support is granted for initiatives to promote the collective brand or certification abroad. These initiatives must include the realization of at least two of the following activities:
- international trade fairs and exhibitions,
- side events at international trade fairs and exhibitions,
- bilateral meetings with foreign associations,
- Organization of seminars, in Italy and abroad, with the involvement of foreign players,
- communication actions in the foreign market, including through large distribution and online channels,
- creation of virtual communities to support the brand.
Link: https://www.marchicollettivi2022.it/liniziativa (ITA link)
Link: https://www.mise.gov.it/it/incentivi/promozione-marchi-collettivi-e-di-certificazione (ITA link)
Websites MARCHIEDISEGNI.EU (coordinated by INNEXTA)
The website has been constantly updated and implemented with the publication of news and insights about the main legislative and jurisprudential news of importance in the field of trademarks and designs. In order to reach a greater number of users the news has also been given visibility through the LinkedIn channel dedicated to the project. The portal was also used as a vehicle of the information related to incentive calls dedicated to SMEs published at the European, national, and local levels in matters pertaining to IP protection. The project's YouTube page made available videos of speakers' speeches at the events as well as a number of so-called "pills" dissemination videos made on topics that aroused the most interest.
Main areas of trademark information activities and related information and communication technology (ICT) practices which were in the focus of attention last year
Implementation of blockchain technology to share trademark data with the EUIPO instead of sftp connection.
- In the framework of the UIBM Academy the following main topics were discussed:
- green technologies and asset protection,
- Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property,
- european and national tools for the valorization of industrial property titles,
- new procedure for invalidity and revocation of trademarks,
- toys, Intellectual Property assets and Counterfeiting,
- valuation of intangible assets.
- Master in Open Innovation and Intellectual Property (with LUISS University as managing body)
- Master in IP valorization for Knowledge Exchange & Impact (KEI) (with University of Bologna Alma Mater Studiorum as managing body)
Statistics: changes in terms of application filings and registrations with respect to previous year; trends or areas experiencing rapid changes
Trademarks | 2022 | 2021 |
National TM Applications | 39.310 | 48,789 |
National Renewals TM Filings | 21,429 | 22,143 |
National TM registrations | 41,620 | 39,101 |
National Renewal of TM Registrations | 17,309 | 20,864 |
Link: https://statistiche.uibm.gov.it/
Other matters and useful links (URLs): annual report of the Office, news page, statistics, etc.
The UIBM Annual Report 2022 is not yet available. Anyway, please find below the link where such document will be made available.
Link: https://uibm.mise.gov.it/index.php/it/comunicazione-ed-eventi/pubblicazioni-uibm
II. SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Information and support provided by the Office to applicants regarding filing on paper and/or e-filing (instructions, seminars, etc.) - URLs
Link: https://servizionline.uibm.gov.it/deposito-online-new/pubblica/index.html (On_line filing -in Italian)
Link: https://uibm.mise.gov.it/index.php/it/deposito-titoli/modulistica-per-il-deposito-cartaceo (Paper-filing - In Italian)
Availability of the application dossier in electronic form
The applications dossiers are available at the link:
https://www.uibm.gov.it/bancadati/Advanced_search/type_url?type=tm&cl=1
III. SOURCES OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE OFFICE
Main types of publications in the field of trademark information, outline of the content and medium (on paper, on CDs, online - URLs)
Our main types of publication on trademark are:
- bibliographic data,
- trademark applications,
- trademark status coverage,
Trademark information are available on-line:
https://www.uibm.gov.it/bancadati/Advanced_search/type_url?type=tm&cl=1
Official Gazettes: main types of announcements, frequency of publication, medium (on paper, on CDs, online, URL), etc.
A database with daily publication on official gazettes are available at the link:
https://www.uibm.gov.it/bancadati/bollettini/index/
All the calls and the incentives referred to trademarks above are announced on the Italian Official Gazette and on the MIMIT-UIBM websites.
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) available to examiners, including external documentation and databases
A tool called NSARA is available for examiners exclusively on the Office premises.
Information products (coverage, medium, etc.) and services available to external users; conditions of access (e.g., free of charge, subscription, etc.)
To the link below is available a database, free of charge, containing all the bulletins.
https://www.uibm.gov.it/bancadati/bollettini/index/
IV. ICT SUPPORT TO SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO TRADEMARK INFORMATION CARRIED OUT BY THE OFFICE
Specific software tools supporting business procedures within the Office: general description, characteristics, advantages, possible improvements
An on-premises tool called NSARA is used that consists of the back-end for trademark examination and the front-end for online filing.
Hardware used to supporting business processes of the Office
Cluster on-premises Qemu (KVM-based)
Internal databases: coverage, updates, interlinks with external sources
Galera MariaDB Cluster
Establishment and maintenance of electronic search file: file building, updating, storage, documents from other offices included in the search file
ElasticSearch and Solr
Administrative management electronic systems (register, legal status, statistics, and administrative support)
SNMP-Based (Nagios, Observium), NetBox
V. PROMOTION ACTIVITIES AIMED TO SUPPORT USERS IN ACCESS AND EFFICIENT USE OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION
Cooperation with universities, technology and innovation support centers, etc. / Education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
TTO call for proposal (measure fully managed by UIBM)
This initiative aims at increasing the technology transfer flows to enterprises by supporting the enhancement and protection of industrial property of projects promoted by TTOs (Technology Transfer Offices). It is addressed to Italian universities and public research organizations, as well as scientifically-oriented Institutes of Hospitalization and Care (IRCCS).
The TTO Call in 2022 was funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Mission 1. "Digitalization, innovation competitiveness, culture and tourism" - Component 2 "Digitalization, innovation and competitiveness in the production system" - Investment 6. "Industrial Property System" funded by the European Union - NextGenerationEU.
The above link refers to education and training: training courses, e-learning modules (URLs), seminars, exhibitions, etc.
The UIBM Academy seminars (online, face-to-face or hybrid) are addressed to all stakeholders interested in IP. Advanced training is provided by the UIBM to human resources involved in the TT= call – Knowledge Transfer managers and Innovation Promoters - who have, among other things, the difficult task of performing as a free support service the analysis of the IP portfolio of Italian SMEs and promoting the culture of IP innovation and technology transfer.
- Master in Open Innovation and Intellectual Property (with LUISS University as managing body)
- Master in IP valorization for Knowledge Exchange & Impact (KEI) (with University of Bologna Alma Mater Studiorum as managing body)
Other activities
MARCHIEDISEGNI.EU PROJECT - see description under ATR on Industrial Design
VI. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF TRADEMARK INFORMATION
Information on the following topics is desired:
International exchange of trademark information in machine-readable form (e.g., Official Gazettes)
The Office exchanges bibliographic data and application information with EUIPO by blockchain on the ipregister network.
Participation in international or regional activities and projects related to trademark information
Participation in the working groups organized by EUIPO on the convergence of practice and other related topics.