Tribute to Julio Delicado

3 October saw the death of Julio Delicado Montero-Ríos, the great promoter of Industrial Property in Spain at a time when there was minimum visibility of such matters. Julio Delicado worked tirelessly to modernise Industrial Property in Spain, finding a place for it and, above all, for legislation governing it.

To mark his passing, on 2 December a tribute was held in the presence of the Director of the SPTO, the Under-Secretary for Industry, Energy and Tourism and the President of the SPTO, as well as members of his family. A plaque in his honour was unveiled, and the Multi-Purpose Room on the 16th floor was named “Sala Julio Delicado”.

His career
Born on 1 July 1921, Julio Delicado graduated in Law then entered the Senior Body of State Administrators. He was appointed Director of the Industrial Property Register in April 1982 and ended his career as Director of the SPTO on 1 October 1993, aged 72.

Great progress was made under his leadership, and this was a period of intense international activity in the SPTO. The PCT Assembly adopted Spanish as a language for International applications, Spain joined the European Patent Convention, the PCT Treaty entered into force and the Diplomatic Conference on the Madrid Agreement on the international registration of trademarks was held.

Within Spain, modern laws were enacted on both trademarks and patents. These had not been reviewed since the 1927 Industrial Property Statute. Also, the former Industrial Property Register became an independent body (now the SPTO). Scholarships were made available for high-level training in Industrial Property and led to the creation of the first group of Patent Examiners in Spain. The first competitive examinations for Senior Officials specialising in Industrial Property for what was then the Ministry of Industry and Energy were held in 1986.