If you want to distinguish your goods, services or both from those of another company, you may need a trademark or trade name. Find out what they are, what their registration procedure is and what it involves.
Información sobre los plazos de presentación de solicitudes de transformación de marcas de la Unión Europea en marca nacional española. Más información
If you have a new device, product or procedure that solves a technical problem or has a practical advantage, there are different ways to protect it in Spain and other countries. Find out how.
Does your innovation lie in the aesthetics, ornamentation or appearance of your product? Protect it through industrial design. Find out what rights registration confers and how to proceed.
Patents published worldwide are a valuable source of scientific, technical and commercial information.
reembolso del 75% del coste de Búsquedas e Informes Tecnológicos de Patentes. Más información*
If you are an entrepreneur or a company and you want to boost and improve the profitability of your business by adequately protecting the intangible assets of your organisation, in this space you will find what you need.
Respondemos todas aquellas dudas referentes a los diferentes procesos implicados en la propiedad industrial.
It is difficult to give exact figures but between approximately 2% and 5% of patents applied for are exploited.
According to information from the last “International Exhibition of Technology and Product Inventions” held annually in Geneva, approximately 1,000 inventions were presented in 2015 by 752 exhibitors from 48 countries. At the 43rd edition of this exhibition held in 2015, contracts for transfers and licences were signed for more than 50 million euros, an average of more than 50,000 euros per invention.
If the applicable annual fees are not paid, the patent expires.
The patent holder can write to the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) indicating that they are willing to authorise the invention to be used by anyone as a licensee.
These licences are called full licences and enable the holder to pay reduced annual fees, which are cut by half after this declaration has been received by the SPTO.
Anyone can use the invention legitimately as non-exclusive licence holder, so several full licences may exist for the same patent.
The patent holder is obliged to exploit the patent, either themselves or through an authorised person, by using it in Spain or in the territory of a member of the World Trade Organisation and to the extent that it satisfies national demand.
The patent must be exploited within four years from the date the patent application is filed, or three years from the date the patent award is published in the Spanish Official Industrial Property Gazette (BOPI), with the later of the expiration dates automatically applying.
At the end of this period for beginning exploitation of the invention protected by the patent, anyone may request a compulsory licence on the patent if at the time of the application and notwithstanding any legitimate reasons, exploitation of the patent has not begun, or effective and serious preparations have not been made to exploit the patented invention in question, or if its exploitation has ceased for more than three years.
In addition to lack of exploitation, the government can make a patent application or a patent already granted available for compulsory licensing at any time, if it considers this to be in the public interest.
An improvement or increase in the exploitation of a patent is considered to be in the public interest if it is of vital importance to public health or national defence.
Likewise, the government can grant compulsory licences for export requirements when the lack of exploitation or insufficient quality or quantity of exploitation causes serious prejudice to the country's economic or technological development.
Finally, this type of licence can be granted in the case of dependent patents, that is, patents that cannot be exploited individually without also exploiting the object of a patent belonging to a third party.
The new Patent Act 24/2015 of 24 July maintains compulsory licences albeit with a few minor modifications. The following circumstances can result in the granting of licences for reasons of public interest: if the improved or increased use of a patent is of the utmost importance for public health or national defence, for export needs, if the lack of use or insufficient quality or quantity of use causes serious prejudice to the economic or technological development of the country, and national supply needs.
As regards the granting of licences for lack of use, the new Patent Act does not take into account any preparatory work when it comes to considering whether the licence is being exploited. Furthermore, the time period for which exploitation can be interrupted has been reduced from 3 years to 1 year for requesting this type of licence.
Lastly, an application for a compulsory licence can be made under the following circumstances: as a means of putting an end to anti-competitive practices that have been deemed to be so by an administrative or judicial ruling and for the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products intended for export, in application of Regulation (EC) No 816/2006.
BOPI
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