{"id":9593,"date":"2025-11-06T22:17:30","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T21:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/explegal.local\/patents-innovation-italy-challenge\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T14:54:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:54:34","slug":"patents-innovation-italy-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explegal.it\/en\/patents-innovation-italy-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Patents and innovation: Italy\u2019s challenge between delay and revival"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There\u2019s a word that still arouses too much indifference in Italy: patent.<\/strong><\/span>

In common parlance, it\u2019s often seen as a technical act, a mere formality to be delegated to consultants, a stamp to obtain at the end of the innovation process. Yet, in the world where global companies compete, a patent is anything but a legal ornament: it is a strategic currency, a measure of industrial power, and an instrument of economic policy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The recent analysis published by ANSA<\/strong> (link<\/a>), based on the Report on Research and Innovation in Italy<\/em> by the National Research Council (CNR)<\/strong> and Mediobanca<\/strong>, confirms this in stark terms. <\/p>\n

Italy remains significantly behind in the sectors defining the new frontier of development: digital technologies, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence. We are growing slowly \u2014 and, above all, in the wrong sectors.<\/strong>
<\/span>
While Germany, France, and the Netherlands are consolidating their patent presence in high-tech fields, Italy continues to lead in mechanics, packaging, and transportation \u2014 solid sectors, but mature ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not just a quantitative problem. It is a cultural problem<\/strong>.
<\/span>
In my work, I see brilliant start-ups and research centers hesitating to file patents every day. They fear the costs, underestimate the value of the \u201cfirst-mover advantage,\u201d or believe that a national filing is sufficient in a global economy. By doing so, they hand over their competitive advantage to other countries \u2014 more structured, and quicker in translating knowledge into legal and economic value.<\/span><\/p>\n

The data speak for themselves: according to the CNR\u2019s analysis, between 2002 and 2022, Italy \u2014 along with Germany \u2014 was the European country with the lowest growth in patents registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. A flat trajectory that reflects our system\u2019s inability to transform research into industrial property, innovation into market presence, and invention into profitability.<\/span><\/p>\n

Behind this delay lies not only a lack of investment in R&D, but also a structural deficit in the awareness of innovation\u2019s legal value<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

The idea of \u201cprotecting\u201d always comes after the idea of \u201ccreating.\u201d We invent, we experiment, we present products to the market \u2014 and only afterwards do we think about the patent. It\u2019s a reactive approach, not a strategic one. Meanwhile, the most dynamic jurisdictions \u2014 the United States, China, Korea, Israel \u2014 are building ecosystems in which patent protection is an integral part of the corporate life cycle.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the picture is not without encouraging signs. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Italian universities, especially the Polytechnics of Milan and Turin<\/strong>, are increasing both the number of patents filed and, more importantly, the number of licenses granted. Public research centers are beginning to understand that an industrial property title is not an end in itself, but a means to engage in dialogue with businesses. <\/p>\n

The legal system, too \u2014 with the strengthening of the Unified Patent Court<\/strong> and a growing specialization of case law \u2014 is offering faster and more predictable tools for the protection of rights.<\/span><\/p>\n

I do not believe Italy has a creativity problem \u2014 it has a system problem<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

We need an ecosystem in which the culture of patents becomes an organic component of industrial strategy, not an accessory formality. This requires a shift in mindset: to regard a patent as a medium-term investment, a value multiplier, and a guarantee for attracting capital and international partnerships. In a knowledge-based economy, those who do not patent do not compete \u2014 and those who do not compete, disappear.<\/span><\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s delay can \u2014 and must \u2014 become an opportunity. We have vast potential in emerging segments \u2014 from AI applied to industry, to green biotech, to the Internet of Things \u2014 where global demand is high and our national presence is still weak. If we can shift our perspective from protecting the product to protecting the vision, we can once again play a central role in Europe\u2019s innovation landscape.<\/span><\/p>\n

Protecting an invention is never a merely defensive act: it is a gesture of trust in the future.
<\/strong><\/span>
And perhaps this is exactly what we must recover \u2014 the ability to believe that Italian knowledge can not only inspire, but also lead, with the same strength with which our workshops and studios once helped shape the very idea of progress.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a word that still arouses too much indifference in Italy: patent. In common parlance, it\u2019s often seen as a technical act, a mere formality to be delegated to consultants, a stamp to obtain at the end of the innovation…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":9592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2732,2468,2731,2467,2509,2519],"class_list":["post-9593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-ansa","tag-claudio-scaramella","tag-innovation","tag-ip","tag-italy","tag-patents"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/explegal.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/explegal.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/explegal.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explegal.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explegal.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/explegal.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9851,"href":"https:\/\/explegal.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9593\/revisions\/9851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explegal.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/explegal.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explegal.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/explegal.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}