Respondemos todas aquellas dudas referentes a los diferentes procesos implicados en la propiedad industrial.
Yes. The rights to an application or a trademark or trade name are transferable through all legally recognised means. In order for them to take effect for a third party, transfer actions must be registered with the SPTO.
In Spain, rights to a trademark are acquired by means of registration. The use of the R (registered), MR (registered trademark) or TM (trademark) symbols is not mandatory and does not provide greater legal protection. However, the use of these symbols may serve to advise that a certain sign is a trademark and thereby dissuade possible offenders and counterfeiters.
The R and MR symbols are used once the trademark has been registered, whereas TM denotes that a certain sign is a trademark.
In Spain, when indicating that a sign is a trademark, it is better to use R for registered or MR for registered trademark (generally not commonly used).
The "copyright" symbol is something completely different to the R for registered. Intellectual property rights and the consequent copyrights generated are not acquired by means of registration, but by means of the creation and public dissemination of the intellectual property in question. The competent body for such cases is the Intellectual Property Registry and the copyright symbol advises of the protection granted to the intellectual creation.
To request the renewal of a registered trademark you need to apply using the relevant forms found on our web page and pay the renewal fee, details of which can be found in FEES. All this needs to be done in the six months prior to the end of the period for which the registered mark was granted and the following six months. In the latter case a surcharge of 25% or 50% of the fee is payable.
The procedure can also be carried out electronically and in this case there is a 15% discount on the fee. All the information on procedures and technical requirements can be found on our web page in the tab trademarks and trade names.
The cost for registering a trademark is always the same, regardless of the type of trademark.
The issue that determines the cost of an application is the number of classes under which the protection is sought.
These fees are updated every year by the State General Budget Law and you can find the figures on the SPTO website (Tasas OEPM).