• Successful World Anti-Counterfeiting Day held in Madrid - 30 June 2017
• SPTO-UIMP summer course: "Patents, Trademarks, Designs: Future challenges"
• Presentation of the new informative brochure: "HOW TO PROTECT HANDICRAFTS. Patents, Trademarks and Industrial Designs"
• WIPO Summer Course
• New registration system to apply for trademarks and trade names with the SPTO

New registration system to apply for trademarks and trade names with the SPTO

In its constant zeal to facilitate and simplify procedures for its users, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO)implemented a new electronic registration system last 21 June, to file applications for trademarks and trade names through a platform called PROTEGEO, available at the website: https://sede.oepm.gob.es/ProtegeOWeb/inicio?tipoTramite=Marcas, providing a further benefit of 15% off (as it is an electronic application).

This new registration system makes the application process for distinctive signs much easier, more flexible and intuitive, since the form is completed online, it is interactive, and its windows adapt to each one of the steps to be taken during the process. Through this system, there is a data validation process that gives a warning when there are mistakes or errors that may have been made before moving on to the next registration step. This prevents the mistakes caused by the prior system, where the form was downloaded as a PDF, and then filed.

Some noteworthy improvements include uploading images of graphic or mixed trademarks, since several formats are accepted given that the system can automatically adapt the formats to the requirements necessary for registration; built-in payment; the incorporation of an advanced good and service selection system, and a system for automated application filing in XML format for large users (C2O system). What is more, PROTEGEO is a system that can be accessed from all kinds of devices.

Currently, the PROTEGEO platform is active for electronic filing of trademarks and trade names. However, it is planned in the near future that other additional procedures for trademarks and trade names will also be implemented, such as application for renewal, reply to suspension on substantive and formal requirements, filing of oppositions, and more.