Chiara Centola

Chiara is Counsel at the firm, which she joined in 2016. She represents Italian and international clients primarily in cross-border patent litigation, with a focus on the electronics and life sciences sectors, as well as in trademark, design, copyright and unfair competition disputes, including proceedings before trademark offices in parallel with civil litigation.

She provides strategic advice on the protection, enforcement, and leveraging of IP rights, and is a regular speaker at conferences organised by leading IP networks and associations.

Her professional experience includes:

• Assistance to a leading multinational pharmaceutical company in complex patent litigation concluded before the Italian Supreme Court with a significant decision on the interpretation and application of the Bolar exemption.
• Assistance to a global electronics company in high-profile litigation concerning the infringement of standard essential patents (SEPs) related to digital transmission technologies.
• Assistance to a major multinational in the tobacco sector in cross-border patent litigation involving heated tobacco (heat-not-burn) devices.
• Assistance to a leading multinational in the diagnostics market in the enforcement of patent rights relating to innovative DNA sequencing technologies.
• Assistance to companies in the fashion and luxury goods sectors in disputes concerning the lawfulness of selective distribution systems, trademark exhaustion, and unfair competition.
• Ongoing advice and assistance to leading brands and multinational groups in the fashion and technology sectors on matters concerning the protection and enforcement of distinctive signs.
• Advice of a multinational and world leading FMCG manufacturer - owner of internationally famous food and beverage, household and personal care brands  -  in advertising self-regulation proceedings before the Italian Advertising Standards Authority (Istituto di Autodisciplina Pubblicitaria, IAP).
• Assistance to Italian and international companies in trademark opposition and cancellation proceedings before the Italian Patent and Trademark Office (UIBM) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), also in coordination with related civil litigation.

• Co-author of Proprietà industriale, intellettuale e IT, IPSOA Gruppo Wolters Kluwer, Milano, 2017, 2022 and 2025
• Patent Litigation: Final Remedies (UPC), Thomson Reuters, 2025
• UPC Milan Central Division: here we are, www.ipinitalia.com, 2024
• Social network: quando è illecito l’uso del marchio altrui da parte dell’influencer? in Il Quotidiano Giuridico, 20 maggio 2020
• Marchio patronimico, diritto al nome e correttezza professionale: la Cassazione sul caso Fiorucci, www.ipinitalia.com, 2016
• Free to choose? Collective management of rights in Italy (co-auth.) in The Copyright Lawyer, 2016