Mariacristina Rapisardi, Italian and European Patent and Trademark Attorney and Supreme Court Lawyer, has been leading the Rapisardi IP Group for almost 35 years, managing it as a highly specialised IP boutique with an international ethos.
She has gained a life-long experience in the IP field, in relation to both the registration and granting of international and supranational patents, trademarks and designs, and a wide variety of legal matters. She has as well substantial experience in the area of strategic advice for IP protection, including providing assistance and giving expert opinions in judicial and extra-judicial matters in Italy and abroad.
Her knowledge ranges from technical-administrative matters in connection with the filing and management of patents to due diligence, and from the reassignment of domain names to contracts. In the more strictly legal arena, she specialises in litigation, advice in anti-infringement cases, unfair competition and in general the protection of intellectual property rights.
A defining trait of Mariacristina Rapisardi has always been her capacity to foresee well in advance the changes in local and global markets and to stay one step ahead where possible. She is therefore known above all for her competence, efficiency and the peerless quality of her work. Member of the Milan Bar Association and of the Italian Association of Industrial Property Consultants since the organisation’s inception, she writes on regular basis articles regarding IP matters in national and international magazines and publications.
Mariacristina Rapisardi has always combined her professional activity with several high-level sport activities, from competitive swimming to mountain sports, as climbing, Alpine ski, rafting, free climbing and free ride, that she practices all over the world, always looking for new destinations also by sea. To this purpose, she has become a remote and faraway land explorer.
To this day, she has explored the most unexplored areas of the world, especially the cold lands of the South and the North, including Antarctica, Arctic, Svalbard and Greenland, Patagonia and Chile, where during the course of several expeditions she has travelled for thousands of miles.
For the exploration activity by sea combined with the mountaineering activity in regions so remote and so hardly accessible, Ms. Rapisardi has been awarded in 2006 by the English Royal Cruising Club with the prestigious Tilman Medal.
The use of the most advanced IT equipment enables Ms. Rapisardi to be constantly in touch with her firm's professionals and clients even while sailing, promptly complying with her several professional duties as entrepreneur, licensed agent of the Italian and European Patent Office, representative before the OHIM (Community Trademark Office) and the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), and as member of the most important national and international associations in the IP field.
She is indeed member of AIPPI - Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle, LICD - Ligue Internationale pour le droit de la concurrence, LES - Licensing Executives Society, INTA - International Trademark Association, ITMA - Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys, ACG – the Anti-Counterfeiting Group and CIPA - The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys. She is as well associate of ASIPI - Asociación Interamericana de la Propiedad Intelectual and APAA- Asian Patent Attorneys Association.

AREAS OF PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Intellectual Property Law
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Elena Cristofori has worked at Rapisardi Intellectual Property since 2006, mainly focusing on the study of trademark and patent filing and prosecution and later specialising in the legal field.
EDUCATION: Degree in Jurisprudence, University of Milan, 2010.
QUALIFICATIONS: Member of the Milan Institute of Junior Lawyers since 2010; Member of INTA Committee since 2017
LANGUAGES: Italian (native language), English

AREAS OF PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Intellectual Property law.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduated from Università degli Studi di Milano in 2014, he started working as trainee lawyer gaining experience in the field of civil litigation. In march 2017 he joined Rapisardi Intellectual Property to begin his career in the field of Intellectual Property law.
EDUCATION: Summer School on IP Law at the Peking University in Beijing (2014); Degree in Jurisprudence (2014); Master in IP Law at Just Legal Services Milano - Scuola di Formazione Legale (2017).
QUALIFICATIONS: Juris Doctor.
LANGUAGES: Italian (native language), English.

AREAS OF PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: intellectual property law, civil law.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Rossella Solveni started practising in 1991 and has worked at Rapisardi Intellectual Property since 1998. As a result of more than ten years’ experience in the field of intellectual property consultancy, she handles legal proceedings in Italy, and also coordinates and supervises litigation processes abroad. Her activities cover drafting contracts and doing judicial and extrajudicial work in connection with patents, trademarks, models, designs, domain names and the internet.
EDUCATION: Degree in Jurisprudence, University of Milan, 1990.
QUALIFICATIONS: qualified to practise as a lawyer in 1997, member of the Milan Bar Association since that year.
PUBLICATIONS: she is the author of numerous articles on industrial property matters, among them “Country Q&A – Italy”, IP in Business Transactions 2009/10, pp. 83-89; “Main IPRs – Italy”, IP in Business Transactions 2009/10, pp. 222-226; “Italy – A year in intellectual property – and a look to the future”, IP Value 2010, pp. 132-134; "Italy" and Patents in Europe 2010/2011, pp. 53-56.
LANGUAGES: Italian (native language), English, French.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Ugo Trojsi, an Italian and European patent attorney, started practising in 1980 and has worked permanently at Rapisardi Intellectual Property since 1984. He is head of the patent department and has huge experience in the field of industrial property, particularly as regards consultancy in support of judicial and extrajudicial action for patents and designs. He takes an active part in negotiations in the field of patent actions. He provides direct assistance to clients and carries out arbitration work in Italy and other countries. He is also a technical consultant to the Court of Milan for settling industrial property suits. He has great skill in drafting, filing and prosecuting patents, including opposition proceedings and licensed and final transfer of patent rights. His specialized technical area of competence is mechanical engineering.
EDUCATION: Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico of Milan, 1980.
QUALIFICATIONS: Italian patent attorney since 1985. Italian trademark attorney since 1995. Attorney accredited to OHIM in Alicante since 1995 and to the EPO in Munich. Member of AIPPI, LES, CIPA and the Italian Institute of Industrial Property Consultants. Technical consultant to the Court of Milan.
PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCES: he is the author of numerous articles that have appeared in publications and reviews in the patents field, and has spoken at numerous meetings on the subject of industrial property.
LANGUAGES: Italian (native language), English, French

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Mr. Bonzanigo joined Rapisardi Intellectual Property in 2012.
Previously, thirty years of experience in Civil Construction Companies as technical director and managing director, with operations across the spectrum of the characteristic profile of the industry, from the development of the business organization and carrying out of the sites, setting and address human and technical resources, also through a significant growth in the size of the company.
EDUCATION: Aeronautical Engineering Degree, Politecnico di Milano, 1975.
QUALIFICATIONS: Organization and Company Management, Politecnico di Milano, 1980; member of the Order of Engineers in Milan.
LANGUAGES: Italian (mother tongue), English, Spanish, French.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Giuseppe Mercurio started practising in 1997 and joined Rapisardi Intellectual Property in 2002 as in-house patent consultant. He has built up a large amount of experience in the area of industrial property. He takes an active part in negotiations in the field of patent actions, and provides assistance to clients in judicial and extrajudicial situations. He has great skill in drafting, filing and prosecuting patents, including opposition proceedings and licensed and final transfer of patent rights. His technical area of competence is mechanical engineering. He is also a technical consultant for the Court of Milan for settling intellectual property lawsuits.
EDUCATION: Degree in Nuclear Engineering, Politecnico of Milan, 1997.
QUALIFICATIONS: Attorney member of the Italian Institute of Patent Consultants since 2006. Attorney accredited to OHIM in Alicante since 2006 and to the EPO in Munich. Member of AIPPI and the CIPA. Technical consultant to the Court of Milan.
PUBLICATIONS: "Italy", Patents in Europe 2010, pp. 53-56.
LANGUAGES: Italian (native language), English, French

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Chiara Formenton joined Rapisardi Intellectual Property in 2010. Prior to this, she worked at the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Milan, where she acquired experience in doing research. Her biology degree qualifies her to work in the pharmaceutical sector in the course of her work in the patent department.
EDUCATION: Specialist Degree in Biology Applied to Biomedical Research, University of Milan, 2008.
QUALIFICATIONS: Attorney member of the Italian Institute of Patent Consultants since 2015. Attorney accredited to OHIM in Alicante since 2015 and to the EPO in Munich since 2019
LANGUAGES: Italian (native language), English

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Gianluigi Volontè has worked permanently at Rapisardi Intellectual Property since 1985 and is head of the trademark department. Over the course of several decades spent working in the field, he has developed great skill in all kinds of patent work in countries all over the world, including performing searches and examining their outcomes, filing procedures and technical/administrative work, formulating and prosecuting replies to objections, and evaluating and handling opposition procedures and active and passive cancellation proceedings. Other spheres of activity in which he is involved include assistance in the various stages of negotiations for the purchase, assignment, and licensing of trademarks, including any due diligence procedures. His remarkable international experience enables him to offer a total consultancy service to an Italian and international clientele, designing strategies for successfully protecting and defending trademarks.
EDUCATION: Degree in Jurisprudence, University of Milan.
QUALIFICATIONS: Qualified trademark attorney in Italy and with EUIPO in Alicante. Member of AIPPI and the Italian Institute of Industrial Property Consultants. Member of ITMA.
PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCES: he is the author of numerous articles that have appeared in publications and reviews in the trademark field, and has spoken at numerous meetings on the subject of industrial property.
LANGUAGES: Italian (native language), English

AREAS OF PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Intellectual Property Law
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Francesca Martinelli joined Rapisardi Intellectual Property in 2016, having gained professional experience in the IP field with a Milan firm specialising in Intellectual Property Law . She is currently handling trade marks and deals with oppositions and replies to objections.
QUALIFICATIONS: Degree in Jurisprudence, University of Trento, 2014
LANGUAGES: Italian (native language), English and German

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Sonia Fodale entered professional practice in 1995 and joined Rapisardi Intellectual Property in 2002 as an in-house trademark consultant. She has considerable experience in the field of intellectual property, and is particularly concerned with replies to official actions, opposition proceedings, drafting warning letters, and cancellation actions, extrajudicial work and legal consultancy.
EDUCATION: Degree in Jurisprudence, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, 1994.
QUALIFICATIONS: Qualified trademark attorney in Italy and with EUIPO in Alicante. Member of the Italian Institute of Industrial Property Consultants since 2003. Member of AIPPI.
PUBLICATIONS: she is the author of numerous articles concentrating on industrial property matters, among them “Italy”, Getting the Deal Through - Copyright 2010, pp. 82-86.
LANGUAGES: Italian (native language), English, French

Graduated in Sociology, Andrea has now a more than 7 years old experience in IP in Rapisardi, in particular in domain name and trademarks renewal and priority searches.
Qualifications: Degree in Sociology at Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca in 2008.
LANGUAGES: Italian (native language), English, French and Spanish

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Claudia Monica Strola has been employed at Rapisardi Intellectual Property since 1995 and has acquired vast experience in searches for industrial property purposes. At Rapisardi she has been information systems manager, and currently runs the research and surveillance department. She is a specialist in research and surveillance for trademarks, patents, trade names and domain names, in accessing data rooms and in drawing up due diligence reports.
EDUCATION: Degree in Politics specialising in Social Research Methods, University of Milan, 1995. Numerous courses and workshops in computer management, statistical analysis, internet use, counterfeiting and searches, as well as due diligence for trademarks and patents.
LANGUAGES: Italian (native language), English

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Nicoletta Di Meo has been employed at Rapisardi Intellectual Property since 1983, with responsibility for managing accounts and human resources. She has accumulated experience of accounts management over more than thirty years. She is also the office’s First Aid and Safety Officer for the purposes of the Italian legislation on the subject.
EDUCATION: Diploma in Accounting.
LANGUAGES: Italian (native language), English