Protection of Industrial Property Rights in the Agri-Food Sector

The production and marketing of quality agro-food products has developed enormously in recent years for many reasons, which include a greater attention by consumers to the quality of food for both health and emotional purposes, deriving from a conscious choice of products, also based on their origin.

The producers' goal is to differentiate their products, make them recognizable, as quality products, also through investments on brands and the defense of the system of designations of origin. But not only; the goal for producers is also to defend their industrial secrets (which include particular recipes or their know-how), anti their  industrial patents, which concern, for example, genetically modified vegetable varieties.

In turn, consumers demand guarantees on the origin of the products and on their quality.

The working session aims at examining and effectively managing the problems concerning the protection of industrial property rights by clients who produce and / or market quality products, but also to examine what tools are available to the consumer for not be misled.