Webinars at the SPTO

In this pandemic period, SPTO has chosen to adapt and has reinvented itself in many ways. One of them is the dissemination and awareness of the relevance and impact of Industrial Property rights.

Last Thursday, May 7th, we have started a series of webinars that have taken place on Thursdays in May. The first one allowed us to see first-hand two new Technological Surveillance Bulletins on two highly topical sectors: "3D Printing" and "Coronavirus: Therapy and Diagnosis in Humans".

These two bulletins complete the list of the 17 Bulletins offered by the SPTO on topics as diverse as medical devices, animal health, electric cars, fishing or footwear, among others. The Bulletins are free subscription and quarterly publication, containing the worldwide patent publications related to the technology sector in question.

The following week, on Thursday, May 14th, the webinar on Compulsory Patent Licenses took place, specifically dealing with the situation caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

The figure of compulsory licenses, contemplated in Spanish laws for reasons of public interest, including public health, has so far had no practical application. However, given the current health crisis, it is very likely that it will be implemented. Researchers are making great efforts to obtain a vaccine and other treatments that curb the effects of the disease and therefore allow a return to normality. These developments could eventually be protected by patent, but this could pose a problem for the eradication of COVID-19. For this reason, many governments are considering adopting extraordinary measures such as the granting of compulsory licenses. This topic was analyzed in depth by renowned experts who each gave their points of view.

On Thursday, May 21, the round table on industrial design and future prospects took place. During the course, the different challenges faced by industrial design in the current situation were analyzed. Design is one of the forms of Industrial Property that protects the creativity of authors, and its regulations at European level are currently pending updating. Currently we are witnessing the importance of design in relation to new technologies, and specifically 3D printing that allows obtaining all kinds of objects and devices in a different way than traditional.

All these sessions have been offered virtually through the SPTO streaming channel.

The recordings are available on the institutional YouTube channel and the presentations in the “ponencias” section.