SPTO News

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As usual, here are the monthly SPTO news, so you are informed of what happens in the world of Industrial Property.

Firstly, we would like to set out some recent procedural changes in the field of Trademarks. On one hand, the SPTO will no longer send a notice to applicants in the context of an EU Trademark Transformation Process to inform them about the assigned record number and remind them of the requirements that should be met. The elimination of this communication, that used to be done when applications were submitted at the SPTO, has been applicable since May 30th 2019. From this point on, the applicant should submit all required documents, detailed in the article 86.2 of the Law 17/2001, of December 7th, on Trademarks, within the term of two months (according to the article 42.2 of the Royal Decree 687/2002, Enforcement Regulation of the Law on Trademarks). This term will begin as established by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) according to the article 140.5 of the Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 of the European Parliament and the Council, of June 14th 2017, on the European Union Trademark. The required documents should be submitted using the form available at the section ‘Transformation of an EU Trademark into a National Trademark’ of the SPTO e-Office. Once the application is received, the SPTO will issue a submission proof and notify the applicant of the National Trademark number assigned to the record. This communication will be sent to the email account registered in the Trademark Transformation Application folder. It should be noticed that the requirements of the articles 14.3 of the Law on Trademarks and 6 of its Enforcement Regulation should be met to be able to claim the unionist priority of the new National Trademark that results from the transformation.

On the other hand, the SPTO updated the Common Communication on the representation of new types of Trademarks on June 3rd 2019, to meet the changes caused by the implementation of the Directive (EU) 2015/2436 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of December 16th 2015, to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to Trademarks. Even though some Member States have had to deal with various modifications, the Spanish document only had to be changed to homogenize the translation of the Table 1 ‘Definitions and means of representation’ to make it as similar as possible to the text of the Enforcement Regulation of the Law on Trademarks (article 2.3).

Secondly, we would like to review the summer courses organized by the SPTO this year:

• ‘Patents and Technological Information as a strategic leverage for Innovation and Technology Transfer’: Course organized together by the SPTO and the International University Menéndez Pelayo (UIMP, by its Spanish acronym) which will be held in Santander between July 15th and 19th.
  Program: http://www.uimp.es/uxxiconsultas/ficheros/0/50039Programa.UIMP.OEPM.pdf
  Enrolment (until June 26th): http://www.uimp.es/actividades-academicas/secretaria-de-alumnos/matriculas/matriculacion-santander.html
• Challenges for the Future of Industrial Property (I). Trademarks, regulation and impact: Course organized by the SPTO and the Complutense University that will be given in Madrid between July 17th and 19th.
  Enrolment (since May 6th): Please, send an email to areadifusión@oepm.es.
  More information: https://www.ucm.es/cursosdeverano/matricula
• WIPO Summer School 2019: Course organized together by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the SPTO and the Spanish School Foundation of Industrial Organization (EOI, by its Spanish acronym) that will be held in Madrid between July 1st and 12th.
  Program: http://www.oepm.es/export/sites/oepm/comun/documentos_relacionados/Noticias/2019/2019_05_09_CursoVeranoOMPI2019_Madrid.pdf
  Enrolment (from March 29th to June 15th): https://www.wipo.int/academy/en/courses/summer_school/index.html

Enrol now, you will not regret it!