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SPTO News

The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) has published a leaflet entitled “The SPTO in Figures, 2015”. This is designed to serve as a quick reference to statistics on the various types of Industrial Property: Patents, Utility Models, Trademarks and Industrial Designs. The tables and graphs in the leaflet allow for comparison of trends in the different types over the years.

In addition to data on the various types originating in Spain, the leaflet also includes international applications originating in Spain using the PCT system, the Madrid system (international trademarks) and the Hague system (international designs), as well as regional applications originating in Spain, European Patents, European Union Trademarks and Community Designs. The most relevant data is also displayed in an infographic.

The sources used to draw up the leaflet are the data bases of the SPTO, the European Patent Office (EPO), the World Industrial Property Organisation (WIPO) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The information given in it may be used, providing that the SPTO is named as its source.

Technology alert on 3D Bioprinting
As a result of the collaboration set up last year with the ITEMAS Technology Platform, the SPTO has published a new Technology Alert on 3D Bioprinting, to be added to the group of Technology Alerts on Life Sciences and Food. The aim is to provide information, to be updated on a daily basis, on patents being published worldwide in this specific technical area. There are now sixteen Alerts in different technical sectors on the SPTO website.

This new Alert will cover publications of patents on 3D printing for medical applications from two viewpoints: either because they allow for the design of products such as biocompatible prostheses, surgical equipment, testing equipment, drugs and personalised foods or even human organs or body parts, or because they involve biological compounds such as cells, proteins, DNA, RNA, etc.

Since the use and development of these technologies in the health sector are new, this alert does not apply any limitations regarding place of origin of patents. This means that the results include Asian documents from China, Japan or Korea, for which the Patenttranslate translation system is recommended.