Italy, new proceedings on the merits – faster timeline and new simplified procedure
Written By
Partner
Italy
My practice is intellectual property, particularly the protection and exploitation of innovation and information.
Partner
Italy
As well as being one of the founding partners of our Italian operations, I'm now Managing Partner and head of our Italian Intellectual Property department.
Due to a recent law reform, Italian proceedings on the merits started from February 28 2023 will significantly change.
This could provide new interesting options for IP litigation.
1. Straight to the core of the matter
The parties have to file all their claims, objections evidence and evidence requests within 120/150 days from the service of the writ of summons.
At the first hearing, the Judge deals with case management issues and sets the agenda of the whole proceedings. Then, already at the first hearing:
a) Court Technical Expert (usually requested to provide an opinion in patents and trade secrets matters) can be appointed; or
b) the final stage can be opened (this could happen in trademarks and design cases where no evidence collection activities are needed).
This means that the first instance judgement on the merits can be issued from 9 months to 1.5 years (in case of CTE) after the service of the writ of summons. We will see how Italian Courts will adapt to these changes and if they will be able to immediately keep this new pace.
Figure 1- Opening Stage
Full article available on PatentHub
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