Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) summer courses

This summer we have gradually returned to normal life following the COVID-19 virus outbreak. This recovery has allowed us to continue organizing our traditional summer courses.

Among other courses, the course that the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, O.A. (SPTO) and the Academy of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has been conducting jointly since 2016.

This course offers students and young professionals the opportunity, for two weeks, to deepen their knowledge of intellectual and industrial property (IP) and better understand this subject as an instrument of economic, social, cultural and technological development. In addition, they have the opportunity to learn the role of the WIPO in the global administration of IP. As a result of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, this year's edition was held electronically. The program is structured in the form of lectures, case studies, simulation exercises and group discussions on specific IP topics, as well as their relationship with other disciplines. The course speakers were experts in the field of IP, both WIPO staff and OEPM officials, as well as speakers from other national and international organizations.

The students, with very diverse profiles, were more than 60 people.

In addition, another of the courses took place this summer. Specifically, the traditional Seminar at the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP), this year with the title: “Industrial Property and Health. Vision after the pandemic "

Consequently, experts from the field of administration, business, research and of the academic world (at a national and international level) have discussed for a week the incidence of IP as a useful and effective tool to promote innovation.

For example, in the context of public health, policy makers face the challenge of achieving a balance between the rights of IP holders and the public, especially in times of pandemic.

For this reason, the challenge of the seminar was to analyze the relationship between scientific and technological innovation protected by IP and Health, and therefore, learn management lessons from the available resources to face the future.

Finally yet importantly, we celebrated too the summer course at El Escorial, next to the Madrid mountains.

This course was held at the end of July under the title "The Europeanization of the trademark system: the Spanish experience", within the El Escorial Summer Courses program of the Complutense University of Madrid.

The sessions took place in person at the María Cristina University Residence Hall, a few meters from the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

The activity was inaugurated by the Director of the SPTO, together with the Director of the Summer Courses, stating as objectives to contribute to the legal and economic debate on the evolution of the regulation of trademark law in the European Union, as well as to deepen the main novelties of law arising after its latest reform.

Throughout the different presentations the experts, both national and international, presented their points of view and also discussed topics of interest such as the "Europeanization of the Spanish trademark system", "The European harmonization of trademark systems", " The distinctive signs and their functions ”,“ The new types of distinctive signs ”or“ The proof of use of the distinctive signs ”. All these topics, after the presentation by the speakers, were the subject of debates and in which many of the attendees participated with doubts and questions.