Oficina española de Patentes y Marcas

The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office has been offering a wide range of information services in the area of Industrial Property since 1980, but it was in 2002 that it committed itself to disseminating the technical information contained in patent documents more widely by making a new technology information service available to the public: Technology Monitoring Bulletins.

Prepared by SPTO patent examiners using more powerful search tools than the free patent databases available on the Internet, the purpose of these electronic sectoral publications is to provide timely, free, schematic and quickly read information on advances and breakthroughs in different technology sectors on a quarterly basis.

Some of these bulletins are prepared entirely by SPTO, while others are the result of SPTO's collaboration with other national and international organisations: the Observatory for Industrial Technology Foresight (OPTI), Technology Platforms and the Portuguese National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI).

The bulletin on “Marine Energy” was produced with this national patent office. The choice of this emerging technical field has motivated it to promote not only dissemination of the most important inventions but also the particular leadership role of Portugal and Spain in terms of research and development facilities and teams. The quarterly bulletin is released in two language versions, Portuguese and Spanish, for the tidal and wave energy sectors. Moreover, it includes statistical content and noteworthy and current items related to the sector, basically news and interviews with relevant personalities.