• Summer Course SPTO-UIMP 2015
• Positions in the SPTO for patent examiners and lawyers
• The SPTO and Technologies to Mitigate Climate Change
• The European Patent Office re-uses the work done by SPTO examiners
• New SPTO photo gallery

The SPTO and Technologies to Mitigate Climate Change

The Statistics and Research Department of the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) has published a Report on Climate Change Mitigation Technologies 2004-2014. The document updates, restructures and expands the content of the previous study ‘ Inventions and Renewable Energies 2000-2013’, bringing it in line with the latest technological trends and with the terminology used globally in this sector.

During the period 2004-2014, a total of 2,143 applications were filed in Spain relating to climate change mitigation technologies, of which 1,584 were for national patents and 559 for utility models. The percentage of inventions published rose from 1% in 2004 to 4% in 2014, indicating sustained growth of 298%. The most active area of technology was Thermal Solar Power, with 866 applications.

There were 517 applications for European patents in Spain (from residents in Spain, both Spanish and foreign citizens), indicating a sustained trend towards growth with an increase of 610%. The most active sector in this group was Wind Power.

The report offers data on the Autonomous Communities in Spain and on type of applicant (enterprise, individual and public body) for both national applications and European patent applications originating in Spain.

New technology alert
In order to provide information that is updated on a daily basis, the SPTO has created a new technology alert on Concentrated Thermal Solar Power.

The purpose of technology alerts is to provide information that is updated on a daily basis on patents being published worldwide in a specific technical area. This alert covers references to patents for equipment and methods for capturing Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), in which the four main categories –based on solar ray irradiance and the method for collecting solar power– are: parabolic channel (parabolic trough collector), solar tower (central towers), Stirling disc (PD parabolic dish) and Fresnel technologies (Fresnel linear reflectors). It does not cover patents on Photovoltaic Solar Power, except for hybrids with CSP.

These technology alerts updated every day are produced alongside the Technological Surveillance Bulletins, which are quarterly publications that include a selection of the most relevant global patents in 15 different technology sectors. These are the free technological surveillance services that have been offered by SPTO patent examiners since 2002.