Novelties in the field of trade marks

Regulatory framework, processing and search tools

The market and thus trade marks are alive and dynamic; therefore its regulatory framework, the processes followed to guarantee its suitable protection and the tools for their search should be in constant updating. Although the task is not simple there are many people working to its achievement, here you have some samples of it.

Firstly, we would like to talk about trade mark regulation and registration process. In this sense, the Spanish Council of Ministers approved on July 20th the Draft Law that modifies the Law 17/2001 on Trade marks to adapt it to the European Directive 2015/2436 that approximates the Community laws and simplifies trade marks register and management. The regulation introduces novelties in material and procedural aspects and makes the trade marks systems of the Member States more homogeneous, avoiding Single Market distortions. Some of its main principles, whose particulars can be consulted at the following link, are:

• Advances in the fight against piracy and more flexible requirements for the trade mark representation.
• Stronger protection of origin certifications, geographical indications and well-known trade marks or commercial names.
• Regulation of the legitimization to oppose to a trade mark registration and acceleration of the renewal process. Direct responsibility is given to the SPTO to declare trade mark invalidity grounds and expiry.

Secondly, regarding search tools, we are glad to announce that from July 4th it is possible to make searches of figurative trade marks by image registered at the SPTO using the tool TMView. This functionality is the result of a Cooperation project between the SPTO and EUIPO that at present allows searching around 7,000,000 registered trade marks in Bulgaria, Spain, EUIPO, France, Greece, Lithuania and United Kingdom. We encourage you to try it, its working is very simple, if you want to know all its details please click here.

Finally, in the field of the processing we would like to highlight the role of the Web Applications platform ProtegeO that since July 19th has added new functionalities. Furthermore, the interface Web Service C2O (Servicio Web C2O, Citizen to OEPM) has been made available, where different WSDL (Web Services Description Language) of each process will be published. Access can be requested using the application form located at the section Web Services of our website. For more information, you can consult this link.