As for the procedural aspects relating to the granting of national patents, the application is filed electronically with the Italian Patent and Trademark Office (UIBM). Upon receipt of the patent application, UIBM will perform a formal verification to ascertain the completion of all the documents required for filing and the payment of the fees.
The patent application is then forwarded to the European Patent Office (EPO) to conduct a search for prior art, that is, research to establish whether the invention as claimed claims meets, in particular, the requirements of novelty and originality.