Brevetto

A patent is a legal title that grants its owner the "exclusive and temporary right" (monopoly) to exploit, develop, dispose of, and market an invention or technological innovation. During its term, typically 20 years, no one else can produce, use, sell, or import the invention without the patent holder's consent.
This exclusive right protects the inventor or company from imitation and offers a strategic opportunity to financially capitalize on the innovation, including through licensing or assignment of the patent itself.

A patent is the result of an agreement between the inventor and the state: in exchange for a series of exclusive rights over the patent application, the inventor agrees to make the details of the invention public, contributing to the technical and scientific advancement of the community.
Patentable inventions must be new, original, and susceptible to industrial application; abstract ideas, scientific discoveries, or works of art are not patentable.
A patent has territorial effect limited to the state that grants it. In the event of infringement, the owner can take legal action to protect their rights and obtain compensation.

The Italian national patent system distinguishes between "industrial inventions" and "utility models".

Invention patents: protect inventions that represent a new and original technical solution, with a high level of inventive step compared to the state of the art. They may concern innovative products, processes, or uses. They are subject to a thorough examination by the patent office to verify their novelty and inventiveness. The term of protection is 20 years from the filing date.

Utility models: protect functional modifications or improvements to existing products that increase their usefulness or ease of use, with a lower level of inventive step than invention patents. They typically cover new shapes, configurations, or arrangements of objects, but do not cover processes or uses. They are not subject to a substantive examination, but only to a formal review. The term of protection is shorter, generally 10 years.

The concept of a "patent" has ancient origins and can be traced back to Ancient Greece, specifically to the city of Sybaris (Magna Graecia), where, according to the historian Philarchus, an exclusive 12-month right of exploitation was granted to anyone who invented something new, such as a culinary recipe. This represents a primitive form of patent, although not formally regulated.

The first true patent in the modern sense was created in Italy in 1421, when the architect Filippo Brunelleschi obtained a three-year exclusive for an innovative barge ("Badalone") used to transport marble along the Arno River for the construction of the Florence Cathedral.

Subsequently, in 1474, the first formally legislative statute on patents, known as the "Venetian Patent Statute," was promulgated in the Republic of Venice. It guaranteed exclusive rights to inventions, particularly in the fields of weapons and shipbuilding, and was the first comprehensive law on the subject in Europe.

In the Anglo-Saxon world, between the 15th and 16th centuries, other examples of patenting developed, such as the English patent granted by King Henry VI in 1449, who granted a 20-year license to John of Utynam for the import of colored glass.

Since then, the patent system has evolved, culminating in the signing of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in 1883, which represented the first international agreement for patent protection.