CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP

Generally, changes in ownership can be applied to all intellectual property titles, whether national or not.

There may be changes in ownership such as:

• Assignments.
• Mergers and demergers.
• Licenses.
• Warranty rights.
• Change in legal name.
• Legal successions.

Changes in ownership of an exclusive right must be transcribed in the special registers where the right object of the change was initially registered, e.g. in the registers of the:

• Italian Patent and Trademark Office (UIBM)
• OHIM
• WIPO
• Single national registers

Changes in ownership are entered in special registers and divided in:

• Registrations
• Annotations

Costs of registrations in Italy depend on the numerousness of the intellectual property titles on which the change in ownership has effect. By contrast, costs of annotations do not depend on the number of exclusive rights for which the change in ownership is meant.

The registration of changes in ownership has public law relevance and it is necessary to the proper running of the protection system of intellectual property titles.