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.
Information on the deadlines for filing applications for transformation of European Union trademarks into Spanish national trademarks. See more
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.
Los Bonos 1, 2 y 3 se encuentran actualmente cerrados. En las próximas semanas se proporcionará más información acerca de su apertura de cara a 2025.
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.
As a general rule, an invention created in the workplace by a worker contracted by a company to carry out inventive steps belongs to the owner of the company unless there is an agreement to the contrary.
Only in the case in which the worker’s contribution to the invention and its importance to the company clearly exceed the worker’s contract or working relationship will the worker have the right to supplementary remuneration.
If the worker is not contracted to do research but obtains an invention related to their professional activity thanks to the resources or knowledge acquired in the company, the business owner can decide between obtaining ownership or reserving the right to use the invention. In both cases, the worker should be financially compensated.
The new Patent Act 24/2015, of 24 July, maintains this regulation.
It depends on how long it has been since they left the company. The law states that inventions for which a patent application is presented within the year following the termination of the working relationship or service can be reclaimed by the company owner.
In this regard, the new Patent Act 24/2015, of 24 July, states that when a patent application is presented for an invention within the year following the termination of the working relationship or service it will be considered to have been made during the effective period of said relationship or service, unless proved otherwise.
According to the statistics on Spanish patents and utility models requested in 2014 by holders:
|
Year 2014 |
Patents |
Utility Models |
|
Companies |
36,22% |
33,93% |
|
Inventors |
40,45% |
64,76% |
|
Public Bodies and Universities |
20,19% |
1,27% |
There are a various kinds of assistance granted by different public organisations and autonomous regions. Management of this assistance is the responsibility of each organisation. In order to facilitate access to this information, the SPTO web page includes a section summarising the main features of the assistance provided, together with contact information for each of the public bodies that manage them (see “Grants and Subsidies”).
The SPTO also allows applicants with low incomes to defer payment. This means people whose income is no more than four times the national minimum wage or those whose joint income when added to that of their spouse is no more than twice the national minimum wage. In these cases, the patent can be granted to the applicant without the need to pay any fees in the first three years. The unpaid amounts are then made up in successive years.
Since 2007 the SPTO also has a programme of grants to help applicants requesting national, European or international patents or utility models. These grants are focused on translation costs and the fees payable in the various national or regional offices in order to obtain a patent, provided the requirements stated in the grant application programmes published annually in the BOE are fulfilled. All the information on this Grant Programme can be found on the SPTO web page.
BOPI
Electronic site
