Italy jurisdiction report: Application of the doctrine of equivalents in Italy

Article 52 CPI (the Italian Patent Law) rules that the scope of protection of a patent is determined by the claims, and further explains that (i) the description and the drawings may be used for the interpretation of the claims; (ii) the scope of protection should balance a fair protection for the inventor with a reasonable legal certainty for the third parties; and (iii) that for assessing the scope of protection, elements which are equivalent to those recited in the patent claims must be considered.