Covid-19 procedural deadlines for intellectual property law in Italy

All oral hearings scheduled until May 11, 2020 were postponed until after May 11, 2020.  

All deadlines which ended until May 11, 2020 were suspended.  

Until  July 31, 2020 Courts may adopt further measures to counter the risk of infection, such as: (i) to restrict public access to judicial offices; (ii) to conduct civil hearings using remote communications system; (iii) to postpone hearings after July 31, 2020.

All deadlines before the IPO ending until May 15, 2020 were suspended. 

Registrations due for renewal until July 31, 2020 will remain valid for 90 days after the Government declaration that the state of emergency is finished. At the moment we do not know when such a declaration will be issued.

According to the Italian Constitution, law decrees can be issued by the Government only in extraordinary cases of need and urgency and must be converted into law by the Parliament within 60 days, otherwise they become ineffective. Therefore, the provisions, being contained in a law decree, are not final. The conversion into law by the Parliament, as well as the possible amendment of said provisions within the conversion process will depend on the emergency trend.

The urgency measures related to the epidemiological emergency of Covid-19, adopted by the Government through law decrees, have been converted into law, with amendments, by the Parliament through the Law no. 27/2020.