The University of Trento aims to promote its applied research, including in collaboration with any third parties. To this end, it promotes the protection of research results and, when it is the owner of intellectual property rights, it takes steps for their valorization and exploitation.
Research results can be protected by appropriate intellectual property right application. For example, industrial inventions, utility models, new plant varieties, can all be protected by a patent under the provisions of the Code of industrial property rights (Legislative decree no. 30/2005, as amended.); original works, including software and databases, can be protected by copyright under Copyright law (Law no. 633/1941, as amended).
Intellectual property rights give their holders the right to prevent any unauthorised use of intellectual property, sanctioning such use and providing remedies for the damage caused.
With Rector's Decree no. 539 of 22.7.2020, the University of Trento adopted the Intellectual Property Regulation (available for download with the document "Diagrammi esplicativi") which aims to support the valorization process of the research results in compliance with national, European and international laws.
The Intellectual Property Regulation is under revision, according to the new Article 65 of Italian Industrial Property Code, amended by Law no. 102 of July 24, 2023.
Field of application: the Regulation applies to Researchers of the University who have created intellectual property in the performance of their research activity.
University guidelines on intellectual property: the University establishes and implements its guidelines on intellectual property by means of regulations, policies, directives, contract templates, etc., that researchers must comply with.
On October 25, 2021 the Intellectual property rights Committee adopted the Guidelines for the management of UniTrento patents, in line with the Intellectual Property Regulation issued with D.R. No. 539 of 22/07/2020.
Definitions (from article 2 of the University Regulation)
- Research activity: any activity which may lead to the creation of intellectual property by a Researcher, that is:
I. totally or partially funded by the University, or
II. taking place within research projects or programmes of which the University or its departments and centres are part, or
III. conducted by the Researcher in an independent manner but through University facilities or economic and physical resources. - Intellectual property: any useful result of research activity which has a value and may be covered by an exclusive right, including industrial inventions, utility models, designs, industrial models, new plant varieties, know-how, trademarks, software, databases, as established by national, European and international laws on intellectual and industrial property.
- Intellectual property rights: the rights, recognized or awarded by current national, European and international legislation on intellectual and industrial property, given to persons over creations of their minds, or as a consequence of a registration or patenting procedure.
- Scientific coordinator: the person responsible for the research activities and for the management of intellectual property. The Scientific coordinator is a member of the University's teaching and research staff.
- Researchers: full and associate professors, researchers with permanent and temporary contracts, technical and administrative staff with permanent and temporary contracts, language experts, contract professors, postdoc researchers, PhD students, holders of research grants, interns, collaborators, students.