Innovative startups are registered in a special section of the Italian companies register. According to Italian law, an innovative start-up is a limited liability company newly incorporated or active for less than five years that needs to comply with a number of requirements. They need to have a yearly turnover of lower than 5 million euros; do not distribute profits; produce, develop and commercialize innovative goods or services of high technological value; be of innovative character. This last requirement can be identified by at least one of the following criteria: at least 15% of the company's expenses can be attributed to R&D activities; at least one-third of the total workforce are Ph.D. students, the holders of a Ph.D. or researchers or, alternatively, two-thirds of the total workforce must hold a master's degree; the enterprise is the holder or licensee of a registered patent or the owner of a program for originally registered computers.
