What is
the SPTO?
If you have an invention, trademark, or industrial design, register it.
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www.oepm.es
GOBIERNO
DE ESPAÑA
MINISTERIO
DE ENERGÍA, TURISMO
Y AGENDA DIGITAL
O
EPM
The concept of Industrial Property refers to a set
of rights that recognize their holders the legal
capacity to solely and exclusively manufacture or
distribute products and/or procedures (through
patents, utility models, industrial designs,
supplementary protection certi cates, and
semiconductor product topographies) and be
able to uniquely identify them in the market in
contrast with similar ones (through the use of
trademarks and trade names).
What is
Industrial
Property?
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01 Who grants these rights?
The legal protection granted by Industrial Property (IP) rights in Spain is extended by the
Spanish Patent and Trademark Ofce (SPTO), an autonomous body that forms part of the
General Administration of the State and which promotes and supports technological and
economic development.. It provides legal protection to all types of Industrial Property by
awarding patents and utility models (inventions); industrial designs; trademarks and tradenames
(distinctive signs) and rights protecting topographies of semiconductor products. It also
disseminates information on the various ways in which Industrial Property can be protected.
02 How is Industrial Property protected?
To protect new industrial INVENTIONS, the SPTO grants patents, utility models,
supplementary certicates of protection, and semiconductor product topographies.
Patents protect a new process, new device, product, or improvements or extensions thereof.
How long does this kind of protection last? Twenty (20) years from the date of submission of
the application, provided that the corresponding fees are paid each year to maintain it in force.
Through the use of utility models, industrially-applicable inventions – novel and involving
new development, consisting of giving an object or a given product some conguration,
structure, or composition that results in useful or practical advantage may be protected.
The maximum duration is 10 years from the date of submission of the application, provided
that the corresponding fees are paid each year.
Supplementary protection certicates are granted to extend, for a maximum of ve
years, the duration of patent rights relating to medicines or plant-protection products once
they have expired, in order to compensate for the period during which they could not be
marketed due to being subject to prior regulatory approval.
Integrated circuits, including their technical drawings, three-dimensional layout, board
tracings and interconnections, are protected by semiconductor product topographies
whose maximum duration is 10 years from the end of the year in which the design is rst
marketed or registered.
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To protect DISTINCTIVE SIGNS, trademarks and trade names are granted.
Registered trademarks grant the right to the exclusive use of a sign to identify a product or
a service in the market; and may consist of words or combinations thereof, images, gures,
symbols, graphics, letters, numbers, three-dimensional forms (wrappers, packages, and so
on), and even sounds.
A trade name is a title that gives the owner exclusive rights over the use of any sign or
name used to identify a company in commercial trade. As in the case of Industrial Property
titles, trade names are independent from the company names registered with the Mercantile
Registry.
The protection of Distinctive Signs lasts 10 years and may be renewed indenitely for
periods of equal duration.
SHAPE CREATIONS are protected as industrial designs, which grant the exclusive right
over the appearance of all or part of a product in reference to the characteristics of its lines,
contours or shape, or ornamentation. The term of protection is ve years from the time of
application, which can be renewed for additional ve-year terms, up to a maximum of
twenty-ve years.
03 What is Technology Intelligence?
The SPTO possesses a large volume of technological and business information
unique in Spain for its content, since it includes full documentation on patents, utility
models, industrial designs, trademarks, and trade names.
This body of information was accumulated by the SPTO over the years in its function as a
registrar and is made available to all interested parties through a set of Technological
Information Services. Apart from acting as registrar, the SPTO has the mission of
disseminating this information to promote and support technological development and
economic growth.
To full what needs or ends are Technology Information Services normally sought?
• To determine the legal status of any application
• To assess the State of the Art in a given domain of technology
• To monitor the competitive environment with respect to ongoing developments in
technology and business
• To adopt a tool enabling monitoring of technological developments
• To identify brands and signs used on the market and gauge the chances for
obtaining approval of new signs
• To serve as a source of ideas to stimulate innovation and technological development
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Publications, Documentary Archives, Databases and Documentary Services are the
instruments through which the SPTO delivers the enormous wealth of technological and
commercial information it possesses to the public.
3.1 Publications
• The Ofcial Industrial Property Bulletin (BOPI) contains the legal-administrative
and technical information from the items processed by the SPTO: distinctive signs
(volume I); patents, utility models and semiconductor topographies (volume II); and
industrial designs (Volume III). It is published daily at no cost to users.
• The International Classications of: Patents (IPC), Products and Services for
Trademark registration (Nice), and for Industrial Designs (Locarno).
• INFOPI, monthly free electronic magazine, published by the SPTO since 2009 in
Spanish and English.
• Other publications: technical, historical, statistical, and informative leaets
• Technology Watch Bulletins (BVTs): free online quarterly publications issued
by SPTO patent examiners. Their purpose is to provide updates on the latest
published patents, grouped by technology sector, providing timely information in
condensed form for quick reading about advances and developments at the
international level.
Portions of these BVTs are entirely created in-house by the SPTO, while others result from
cooperation with different organisations and institutions.
SPTO Bulletins
• Electric vehicles
• eDependence
• Advanced mobile services and interfaces
• Wireless sensor networks
• Smart vehicles
SPTO Bulletins - Technical Product-Markets
• Animal Health
• Biotechnology for Healthcare
• Biomass
• Fishing and Aquaculture
• Medical Devices
SPTO-WIPO Industry Bulletins
• Footwear industry
• Food industry
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• Mechanical metal industry
• Plastic moulding industry
SPTO-Portuguese National Institute of Industrial Property (“INPI”) Bulletin
• Marine energy
3.2 Documentary Archives
The Documentary Archives contain a collection of patents from several million national
and foreign documents, together with bulletins and publications from a variety of countries.
They can be consulted in the SPTO Technical Library, as well as by acquiring copies of
individual documents and browsing and/or downloading them for free from the SPTO
website.
3.3 Databases
The SPTO maintains and makes a series of databases available on the INTERNET for
free consultation:
• Trademark Locator
• Case le consultation: “CEO”
• Inventions in Spanish:
“INVENES”
• Designs in Spanish:
“DISEÑOS”
• GSA search for inventions
• Inventions in other
languages: “Espacenet”
• Inventions in Spain and Latin
America: “Latipat-Espacenet”
• International Patent
Classication (IPC)
• Intl.Class. of Branded
Products and Services
(“Clinmar”)
• TMView: European
Trademarks
• DesignView: European
Designs
• Jurisprudence Database
• Statistics: “OEPMESTAD”
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3.4 Document Services
The Technological and Business Information Services that the SPTO performs are subject
to the payment of a public fee, and include the following:
• Technological Patent Reports (ITPs): These provide an in-depth analysis of patents
and utility models published worldwide in relation to a specic question submitted by
an applicant (a possible patent application or utility model, research project and/or
new development, etc.); including commentary, listings of references retrieved from
databases, and links to the most relevant documents.
• Custom Technology Watch Reports: Sent out with the desired frequency, provide
information about the patents published inside and/or outside of Spain in relation to
the topic dened by the interested party.
• Retrospective Searches: These gather and list bibliographic references to patents
and utility models published within and/or outside Spain in relation to the topic dened
by the applicant.
• Search for precedents and similarities in Distinctive Signs: This service identies
precedents and phonetic similarities among distinctive signs using the INPAMAR
Database and by searching on various criteria in the CEO Database.
An Ofce Dedicated to Excellence
In the process of modernization to become a
“paperless ofce” that the SPTO has undergone in
recent years, the effort in terms of the resources
invested in developing the Electronic Ofce, from
which all administrative procedures processed by the
SPTO can be accessed, is worthy of note. In addition,
starting in December 2013, some procedures may
be paid for by credit/debit card to simplify user
transactions.
A Visible and Friendly Ofce
The SPTO is visible on the Internet through its
presence on the Twitter and Facebook social
networks, as well as on the SPTO YouTube channel,
its account on Scribd and on the Patents and
Trademarks Blog on madrid+d, and information
provided through Wikipedia.
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What is the SPTO?
SPANISH PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
ADDRESS
Paseo de la Castellana, 75
28071 Madrid. ESPAÑA
METRO/UNDERGROUND
Nuevos Ministerios
BUSES
5-7-14-16-19-27-37-40-43-45-126-147-150-C1 y C2
EMAIL ADDRESSES
difusion@oepm.es • informacion@oepm.es • registro@oepm.es • pyme@oepm.es
If you have an invention, trademark, or industrial design, register it.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Tel: 902 157 530 (hours: Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.)
(from July 1 to August 31 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.). Fax: 91 349 55 97
INFORMATION
Tel.: 91 349 53 35 - 91 349 53 97 - Fax: 91 457 25 86
SME SUPPORT SERVICE: Tel. 91 349 68 22 - 91 349 55 48
ARCHIVE SHOPTWB (scanned images of sheets and items from the SPTO Historical Archive): 91 349 55 50
PUBLIC VISITING HOURS
Registry Services Hours (1st oor):
Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Registry Services Hours (from July 1 to August 31):
Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturdays 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Cashier Service Hours (La Caixa, 1st oor): Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Closed evenings from May to September, inclusive
WEB PAGE
www.oepm.es
NIPO (papel): 088-18-009-4
NIPO (en linea): 088-18-010-7
DL: M-4439-2018
O
EPM