How to registrate the different tpyes of industrial property in Spain
The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (SPTO) is the public body responsible for the registration and granting of the different types of Industrial Property. In this sense, the SPTO explain this about how to apply for an industrial property right:
The documents needed to request protection of industrial property rights vary by category. Generally speaking, the minimum information required for obtaining a submission date is the following:
– An express or implicit statement that the rights are being requested.
– Information identifying the applicant.
– In the case of patents and utility models, a description.
– In the case of distinctive signs and industrial design, a copy of the distinctive sign or the industrial design, along with an indication of the products to which it will be applied.
The application will be assigned a submission date, hour and minute, and a number that identifies the case file, which will never change.
In the event of any irregularity that prevents a submission date from being assigned, the applicant will be notified to enable correction of the defect within the timeframe established by law for each industrial property category. In this case, the submission date will be the date the correction document is received. If no correction is received, the application process will be considered withdrawn.
Types of industrial property right
In Spain there are several types of industrial property right:
– Industrial Designs: these protect the external appearance of products
– Trademarks and Trade Names (Distinctive Signs): these protect the combination of graphic and/or denominative elements that help distinguish products and services on the market from other similar ones offered by other economic agents.
– Patents and utility models: these protect inventions consisting of products and procedures which are susceptible to reproduction and/or use for industrial purposes
– Topographies of semiconductors: these protect the (diagram of) pathways of the different layers and elements making up an integrated circuit, their three-dimensional arrangement and their interconnections, that is, what constitutes its “topography”.
Industrial property rights enable the holder to decide who can use them and how. These rights are granted through a procedure carried out by the competent organisation (in Spain this is the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office) and the protection they provide covers the whole country.
Click here to know more about SPTO. And if you are thinking about forming a company in Spain, don´t hesitate to contact us for further informations.
