Spanish Chapter of Global Patent GO——Introduction to Spanish Patent Application

Some Like It Hot Spain

Spain in the 21st century has long lost the shade of its ancestors. The Spanish Empire has declined as early as the 17th century. However, it is an indisputable fact that the Spanish Empire has had a profound impact on global culture. Today, there are 500 million people in the world Spanish is the language with the third largest number of speakers and the second largest number of native speakers in the world.

The Mediterranean climate fosters abundant sunshine on the Iberian Peninsula, making Spain the fourth tourist paradise in the world. In addition, Spain is also an important automobile manufacturing and ship manufacturing country in Europe. It has an efficient multimodal transport logistics network and is in a leading position in machinery and equipment manufacturing, technological transformation and integration. Its aerospace machinery manufacturing and packaging machinery manufacturing are both global Industry leadership. The milling machines, electric spark grinding machines, and packaging machines that can complete bottle filling and sealing in Spain are highly digitalized; the world's largest tunnel excavator with a diameter of 15 meters that can resist surface pressure, high-speed sorting machines, internal Circular and cylindrical grinding machines, etc., are favored by global companies; the longest band sawing machine in the world is manufactured by the Spanish DANOBAT company; Spanish aerospace manufacturing is in the manufacture and In the field of biopharmaceuticals, Grifols, the world's first company capable of collecting plasma, and Zeltia, the world's first marine anti-tumor drug manufacturer, are both from Spain; Spain is also the first company to use stem cells to treat heart disease Method, performed the world's first operation to transplant mesenchymal cells into the heart. McKinsey Consulting's "European Biotechnology: A Solid Foundation for Growth and Innovation" report shows that Spain ranks fourth in the list of the top ten biopharmaceutical industry clusters in Europe in 2019, with more than 350 pharmaceutical companies and a turnover of the pharmaceutical industry in 2019. About 20 billion euros. In addition, the Spanish environment and renewable energy industry has developed rapidly in recent years. At present, there are more than 2,000 companies and 140,000 practitioners dedicated to research on waste treatment. Spain is also the world's second largest and Europe's largest producer of electrothermal solar energy, the world's second largest producer of solar photovoltaic energy, and the fourth largest producer of wind energy. Technological progress has made it difficult for Spanish products to be replaced by products from other countries, and the added value of industry has surpassed that of Italy and France and is close to that of Germany. Even Huawei, because of the open and transparent business environment that Spain has provided for Chinese companies in the past 20 years, chose to establish a European service and technical support center in Madrid, Spain in October this year.

Spain is China's sixth largest trading partner in the EU, and it is also the best European platform for trade with Latin America and a bridge connecting North Africa, Mediterranean countries and Middle East countries. China is Spain's largest trading partner outside the European Union. As of the end of December 2019, the total bilateral trade volume between China and Spain was 35.469 billion US dollars, of which Spain imported 8.6 billion US dollars from China. The main commodities are: mechanical equipment, Transportation equipment, plastics and their products, mineral products and pharmaceuticals, etc.

Spain is currently preparing the "Preliminary Draft of Industrial Property Law Reform", which will affect Spanish trademark law, industrial design law and invention patent law. The new law will take effect in 2022.

Spanish patent overview

1. Paths for Chinese applicants to apply for patents in Spain <br>Paris Convention, PCT path to enter the Spanish national phase, direct application.

2. Examination unit <br>Spanish Patent Office, OEPM, under the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade of Spain, was established in 1991 and is also an ISRing Authority and an International Preliminary Examining Authority. OEPM's mission is to protect and encourage innovation in Spain through the granting of industrial property rights, with a special focus on helping small and medium-sized enterprises grow. At the same time, through the collection of documents and the development and maintenance of databases, patent information is delivered to the audience, and information about registered marks is released to promote the circulation and exchange of goods and services.

3. submit application

1) Deadline requirement: OEPM does not recognize priority restoration. The via Paris Convention must enter the Spanish national phase within 12 months from the earliest priority date, and the via Nationalization of PCT must enter the Spanish national phase within 30 months of the earliest priority date/international filing date.

2) Submission of the application: paper or electronic submission; the Spanish translation of the certified copy of the Certified Priority Document must be submitted within 2 months from the filing date.

3) Filing Language: Spanish. Submissions in other languages are not permitted.

4. formal review

OEPM accepts the patent application and grants the filing date within 8 days of receipt of the patent application, or rejects it.

5. search report

OEPM requires the applicant to submit a search request at the same time as submitting the application and pay the relevant fees when submitting the application.

6. Publication and examination <br>The applicant should submit a substantive examination request for the invention patent within 3 months after the publication date of the prior art search report. OEPM does not conduct substantive examination of utility model patents and design patents.

7. Authorization procedure
OEPM does not charge a fee for granted registration, but an annual fee is required. The design will submit the next renewal request before the expiration of each 5-year period, that is, the renewal fee will be paid in the 6th, 11th, 16th and 21st years. The average time from patent application to granted is about 21 months. If the examination is accelerated, the granted only takes 12-15 months.

Advantages of Spanish patent application

1. The newly revised "Law on the Protection of Industrial Designs According to Law" not only adapts to new regulations, but also adapts to the current increasingly dynamic and virtualized market. OEPM supervises designs, trademarks and product names in a coordinated manner, which greatly protects the rights and interests of obligees.

2. A patent application can be converted from an invention patent to a utility model patent during the public opposition period, and OEPM can also require the applicant to convert the application type during formality examination.

3. The fee for the search report shall be paid in advance when the patent application is filed. Accordingly, the applicant has access to the prior art report before the results of the background check and the preliminary opinion of the examiner, thereby providing it with the necessary information to decide whether to retain the application and/or file for a patent abroad during the priority period.

4. Products or compositions can be protected through utility model patents.

5. Spain is a member state of the European Union and can enjoy the patent supplementary protection certificate system, and the SPC protection period is up to 5 years.

Friendliness to Chinese applicants:
★★★★★
Gold content of patent rights:
★★★★
The degree of perfection of the rights protection mechanism:
★★★★