• WIPO General Assemblies
• New Models for Technology Transfer Contracts
• Annual Meeting of Regional IP Information Centres (PatLib Centres)
• Quality at the SPTO
• Cervantes and Intellectual and Industrial Property

WIPO General Assemblies

The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) was present at the General Assemblies of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) held in Geneva from 3 to 11 October. During the assemblies, a number of bilateral meetings were held with the representatives of different national Industrial Property offices with a view to strengthening international cooperation in this area.

Meetings and common projects
On 3 October, the first bilateral meeting was held between the SPTO and the National Industrial Property Office of Guatemala, at which certain short-term projects of interest to both parties were defined and future joint cooperation activities proposed. During the week, the SPTO also participated actively in the meetings of the B+ working group for international harmonisation of the patent system.

In the same way, the SPTO delegation met with the representatives of the Romanian National Office, who are mainly interested in the extensive experience of the SPTO in the protection of Industrial Property rights on a European and international level.

A meeting was also held with the Turkish Patent Institute and a Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) agreement was signed allowing for information to be shared between the two offices. The purpose is to avoid the duplication of efforts and to speed up granting procedures which should lead to a better service for patent applicants. In addition, the SPTO delegation met with the director of Rospatent (Russia) to sign a new agreement for cooperation and a PPH agreement that will facilitate the internationalisation of patents for Spanish and Russian applicants.

The delegations of the Moroccan National Industrial Property Office and the SPTO took the opportunity to review their joint activities and to define future projects between them for training and for the dissemination and protection of Industrial Property rights.

Finally, on Thursday 6 October a bilateral meeting was held between the Brazilian National Industrial Property Institute (INPI) and the SPTO to strengthen the protection of Industrial Property rights in the two countries. For this purpose, the General Directors of the two offices signed an agreement that lays out the framework for cooperation between them.