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.
Geographical indications protect the name of a product that has a specific geographical origin and owes its qualities, characteristics or reputation to its particular origin. Find out what they are, how the registration process works and what benefits they provide.
Patents published worldwide are a valuable source of scientific, technical and commercial information.
El Bono 3 del Fondo para PYMEs 2025, que cubre la elaboración de Informes Tecnológicos de Patentes (ITP) y Búsquedas Retrospectivas se cerrará el lunes 10 de febrero de 2025 al cierre de la jornada laboral. Próximamente se informará sobre su reapertura. Puede consultar más información aquí.
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.
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% |
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.
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.
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
Electronic site
