In my earlier posting I reported that the Italian Parliament had, by means of a decree dated December 22, 2005, lifted all Official fees in 2006 for patents, utility models, and designs, including application fees and maintenance fees.
Now I have seen (off-line) reports from Italian Patent Attorneys saying that, under the new Prodi Administration, the Italian Government now in charge has drafted a decree to be submitted to Parliament re-introducing application and maintenance fees on Italian patents (maintenance fees starting from the fifth annuity), utility models, and design registrations (maintenance fees starting from the second five years period).
According to one source there are even rumours to the effect that the Italian Government might plan to request payment of maintenance fees for 2006. There appears, however, to be no confirmation on the web or elsewhere.
Feel free to contact PA Axel H Horns via e-mail
horns@ipjur.com. BEWARE: DO NOT SEND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION UNENCRYPTED VIA E-MAIL. USE OF ENCRYPTION SOFTWARE IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. PA AXEL H HORNS IS PROVIDING SUPPORT FOR ENCRYPTED E-MAIL MESSAGES USING PGP OR PGP COMPATIBLE FORMATS. THE PGP PUBLIC KEY FOR PA AXEL H HORNS IS AVAILABLE
HERE. THE GnuPG PUBLIC KEY FOR PA AXEL H HORNS IS AVAILABLE
HERE.
Dipl.-Phys. Axel H Horns is Patentanwalt (German Patent Attorney),
European Patent Attorney as well as European Trade Mark Attorney. In particular, he is Member of: