If you want to distinguish your goods, services or both from those of another company, you may need a trademark or trade name. Find out what they are, what their registration procedure is and what it involves.
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If you have a new device, product or procedure that solves a technical problem or has a practical advantage, there are different ways to protect it in Spain and other countries. Find out how.
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Patents published worldwide are a valuable source of scientific, technical and commercial information.
reembolso del 75% del coste de Búsquedas e Informes Tecnológicos de Patentes. Más información*
If you are an entrepreneur or a company and you want to boost and improve the profitability of your business by adequately protecting the intangible assets of your organisation, in this space you will find what you need.
In accordance with the International Patent Law Treaty (PLT) which came into effect in Spain in November 2013, the minimum documentation that must be submitted is as follows:
- An express or implicit indication in Spanish that the applicant is applying for a patent or utility model.
- Information in Spanish that enables the applicant to be identified and contacted.
- A document that, at first glance, appears to constitute a description (this can be submitted in any language, or can even be in diagram form). For the purposes of the submission date, a reference in Spanish to a previously submitted application, made at the time the application is submitted, will replace the description or any diagrams.
The application can be completed at a later date, but the submission date will be that on which at least the aforementioned items were presented.
It is important to point out that the purpose of the invention cannot be extended after the submission date of the patent application. It is therefore recommended that the applicant submits all elements of the application right at the start (description, claims and, where applicable, diagrams and summary).
The period between applying and having the patent granted is usually between 26 and 36 months. However, there are several circumstances that should be taken into account.
The holder does not have a complete lack of rights until the patent is granted. Between the submission of the application and the granting of the patent, the applicant has the following rights.
- Priority right, recognised by a number of international treaties, awards the holder a period of 12 months to submit a patent application in other countries and with the same initial submission date.
- It is also possible to make financial gains from the patent application: the law allows the holder to grant, give as guarantee, and licence both patents that have been applied for and those that have been granted. This means, for example, that a patent application can be mortgaged (by drawing up a chattels mortgage) and its initial use can therefore be financed.
- From the publication of the patent application, the applicant enjoys provisional protection that enables him to demand reasonable compensation from anyone who infringes what is later defined as the object of the patent.
Although the procedure may seem excessively lengthy, it is designed so that the applicant can “buy time” and avoid a major initial expense. It is artificially lengthened so that applicants only go through to the next stage if their patent is likely to be commercialised and sold on the market. In short, the procedure is structured into a series of stages in which the next stage is only reached when the previous one is successfully completed, enabling the applicant to make staged payments.
However, if the applicant wishes to do so, he or she can make use of the accelerated processing procedure (CAP - acronym in Spanish) which can considerably reduce the length of the process, if the following requirements are met:
- It is not a priority patent application.
- The applicant explicitly signs up to the accelerated processing procedure by submitting form SPA1, together with the application form.
- The applicant requests (and pays for) the State of the Art Report together with the application form.
The applicant can also shorten the processing time if they do not use the full period of time granted by law for responding to the Office’s requirements.
Yes, under certain conditions.
Changes can be made during the patent granting procedure, provided they meet the following requirements:
- they do not extend the object of the invention, as stated in the initial application,
- they are only made at the times provided for by law.
In the Guidelines for the Examination of Patent Applications, available in the Inventions section of the SPTO web page, you will find more information on the material and time restrictions mentioned above.
No, not if you want to obtain the legal protection provided by a patent or utility model. Only new inventions can be protected, that is, those which have not been made known publicly in Spain or abroad, either in writing or verbally or by any other means; in other words, inventions that are not included in what is known as the “state of the art”.
Exceptions are made to the above in some cases, such as the presentation of an invention in officially recognised exhibitions, in which case, applicants have six months from the date when the invention was displayed in which to prepare an application that must be accompanied by the relevant official certificate. In all cases, it is important to bear in mind that officially recognised exhibitions can vary, depending on the country in which the applicant wishes to apply for protection.
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