Weeks have passed since the new growth decree became official law on April 30, 2019.

The measures that have been taken by the government, in a hurry and to counter the stagnation of the Italian economy, will not be magically capable of revolutionizing our economy, but there is something positive, let's see it together.

The part of the decree to which we refer is a specific article with a series of rules connected to it and by the name: "Protection of Made in Italy brands", designed and written to protect itself from the tendency of historic Italian brands of national interest to relocate their own production centres. The measures that have been taken for the protection of Made in Italy are different and all present within the growth decree, a document approved in April the 30th, 2019 and which supports the document on economics and finance. This decree has the priority of relaunching private investments in Italy, which have been stuck for too long and therefore have caused catastrophic international scenarios, such as the failure to increase GDP in relation to the decrease in public debt and other negative economic financial parameters.

Let's look more into detail at what the section of the decree dedicated to the protection of Made in Italy is about and what "historic brand of national interest" means, a new definition present within the document.

Article 11-ter establishes that a trademark registered for at least 50 years or for which it is possible to demonstrate continuous use for at least 50 years and having a production on national territory, can obtain the registration of the trademark in the register of historical national trademarks. It was established that the special register of historic marks of national interest will be established at the Italian Patents and Trademarks Office. In order to safeguard the employment level and the continuation of production activity in Italy, the fund for the protection of historic brands of national interest was established at the Ministry of Economic Development. With the aim of protecting the work of the many employees of these brands, the decree provides higher barriers to companies that decide to close their production plants.

The company that owns a trademark registered in the special register that intends to cease the activity, must notify the decision to the Ministry of Economic Development of information relating to the project of closure or relocation of the plant, and in particular:

• The real economic reasons for closure and relocation;

• actions aimed at reducing the employment impacts through, incentives to exit, of employees within the group;

• the actions it intends to take to find a buyer;

• opportunities for employees to present a public purchase offer and any other possibility of recovering the assets from the same. After informing the Ministry of Economic Development, the company will have to proceed to identify the potential buyers, informing the Ministry of the received proposals every 3 months.

If the company does not communicate the aforementioned information to the Ministry, it will face an administrative penalty of € 5,000 to € 50,000.

A "logo of historic brands of national interest" has also been set up, which companies registered in the register may use for commercial purposes and access to financial facilities connected to it, and offer support in product development and in filing new patents and brand names.

In writing the article on the protection of the Made in Italy, therefore, we begin to undertake, and we say finally, a serious strategy of protection of the companies that actually use it.

At TrackDesign, we believe deeply in this.

We believe that it is humanly and economically correct to maintain the craftsmanship of Italian operators with the production skills of our plant managers, who we believe give the company a boost of inestimable and incomparable value.