From the laboratory to the market: IP Roadshow in Italy

A series of meetings with Italian innovators took place in Sicily, on 10-12 July. The roadshow, led by Italian EIT Health Hub was focused on patents, intellectual property rights and innovations in healthcare.

The initiative was organised by Consorzio Arca in collaboration with Enterprise Europe Network and EIT Health InnoStars. The events were hosted by the University of Catania, the University of Messina and the University of Palermo. The IP experts and healthcare stakeholders discussed the patent as an instrument of innovation in the health sector. The key takeaways were focused around:

• The role of patents as a tool to support innovation, and the patenting procedures;
• Different types of patent regarding to health sector;
• Patent process: from the application to the concession.

During the first module, participants discussed the issues of patenting procedures in Italy, the European Patent Office and the PCT international patent procedure. Moreover, they also focused on the role of patent information from state-of-art research to freedom of action. The common thread of those topics was put on health technologies such as pharmaceutical, biomedical and biotech.

The second module was dedicated to different types of patent such as composition, procedure or device regarding to health sector. This panel highlighted the protection strategies implemented in creating of claims and description of the invention. What is more, the specialists provided notes regarding the current legislation in Europe in the field of patent protection, based on examples extracted from patent applications.

Throughout the third module, experts explained the patent process with specific steps which have to be considered during the procedure. In addition, they also shared some examples of patented products from pharmaceutical, biotech and biomedical fields.

Consorzio Arca has cooperated as EIT Health Hub since 2017, within the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme Programme. This is the EIT Community outreach scheme that enables the transfer of good practices and know how from the EIT’s unique approach to boosting innovation. EIT Health Hubs support regional stakeholders and involve them in the EIT Health programmes, trainings and competitions as well as activities in the field of healthcare innovations.