Who is this guide for?
For applicants and patent attorneys outside Italy who file an Italian patent or utility model application with the UIBM, usually through an Italian representative, for example as a first filing whose priority is later claimed at the EPO or under the PCT. An applicant residing abroad must elect a domicile in Italy (Art. 21(1) D.M. 33/2010). If you validate a European patent in Italy, the Italian translation of the granted text is filed under Art. 56 of the Italian Industrial Property Code: ask your Italian representative which formal requirements apply to its drawings.
The Italian rules below are quoted from Italian sources, which exist only in Italian. An Italian version of this guide is available on inklaim.it.
What does Art. 22 of D.M. 33/2010 require?
Ministerial Decree D.M. 13 January 2010, No. 33 (in Italian) is the implementing regulation of the Italian Industrial Property Code. Its Art. 22 sets the form of the description, abstract, claims and drawings of patent and utility model applications: in 2025 the UIBM received 11,996 patent applications for inventions and 2,073 utility model applications (MIMIT, 2 March 2026, in Italian).
Which sheet and which margins?
Paragraph 1 requires “linee e caratteri a stampa neri su carta bianca forte di formato A4” (black printed lines and characters on strong white A4 paper), with margins of at least 2.5 cm on all four sides, for both drawings and text. The same formats apply to online filing. That leaves a usable area of 16 × 24.7 cm, which must hold all numerals, labels and leading lines.
How high must numbers and letters be?
The 0.21 cm capitals of paragraph 2 apply to the text, not to the drawings. For drawings, the regulation sets no minimum. In practice 0.32 cm is used, the EPO and PCT minimum: good practice, not a rule.
How are sheets and figures numbered?
Under paragraph 3, drawings, which may even be made by hand, are numbered consecutively, and the figure numbers and the numbers of the parts must be referred to in the description. Chamber of Commerce guidance asks for figures to be numbered even when they fit on a single sheet. Paragraph 4 gives 2 months to replace provisional drawings with the final ones.
How do the claims and the text in the drawings fit in?
Art. 21(4) allows references to the figures in the claims only for clarity, and reference numerals do not limit the scope of the claims. Under Chamber of Commerce practice, drawing sheets carry no colors and no wording, except the indications needed to understand them and, where used, the scale (Genoa Chamber of Commerce, 2021, secondary source, in Italian).
D.M. 119/2021 amended Arts. 21 and 25, not Art. 22. Before an important filing, still check the consolidated text on Normattiva (in Italian).
