Law firm for Spanish trademark law, copyright,
intellectual property and industrial property protection

Another focus of our practice is German-Spanish trademark law, German-Spanish copyright law, i.e. intellectual property in general, and commercial legal protection, with competition law being a particular focus. The brand is an essential part of your success for almost all companies. A well positioned brand leads to competitive advantages over other competitors. We therefore advise German companies on their brand strategy in Spain, as well as Spanish companies on their brand strategy in Germany. Protection of the brand is the top priority. This protection begins with the correct registration and registration of the trademark. In the further course, we then concentrate on trademark protection, ieWe are at your disposal as a competent partner in Spain and Germany in the pursuit of trademark infringements.

In the area of ??copyright, we protect your creative personality and, through our efforts, guarantee the economic exploitation of your copyrights in Spain and Germany. Commercial legal protection serves to protect intellectual property, the so-called intellectual property. It encompasses the previously mentioned areas of trademark and copyright law, but goes beyond this as a generic term and also includes the areas of the protection of labels as well as the protection of names and protection against exploitation of reputation. Above all, commercial, aesthetic features such as design and designs or technical features such as the patent are protected. We represent and defend your company throughout Spain in the event of violations of your intellectual property, in all Spanish courts.We are also on site in Germany for you and represent and defend you in all German courts, because our lawyers have double admission. Finally, we come to competition law. Competition law is supposed to guarantee fair competition and serves to regulate market participants. As a German-Spanish law firm, we act on your behalf against unfair behavior by other market participants and competitors and / or ward off corresponding attacks. As a German-Spanish law firm, we protect your intellectual property and support you primarily in legal questions regarding trademarks, copyrights and competition law. Below we would like to give you a small outline of Spanish trademark law, Spanish copyright law,on Spanish competition law and commercial legal protection in German Spanish legal transactions.

1. Spanish trademark law :

In the Spanish legal system, one of the categories of industrial property protection is given by the distinctive signs; therefore, we must abide by the legal provisions set out in Law 17/2001 of December 7th on Trade Marks (henceforth the Trade Marks Act) and its Development Ordinance approved by Royal Decree 687/2002 of July 12th. Article 1 of the Trademark Law states that for the protection of distinctive signs the following industrial property rights will be granted.

a. the mark.
b. the trade name

In general, whether at national or Community level or in the case of an international trademark, the trademark grants its holder an exclusive right that enables it to distinguish and identify the services or products covered by the trademark; this has been sufficiently demonstrated by Community case law (including the judgments of the Court of Justice (EC) at its plenary session of 29 September 1998 and 4 October 2001). What characterizes the brand in relation to other categories of industrial property protection is therefore its distinctive character in relation to a class of goods and services; therefore, the brand, along with the trade name, is considered a distinctive sign. One of the classification criteria that we can consider in the area of ??brandsis none other than the scope of protection that they grant their holder at the territorial level. Depending on this criterion, we will have to consider the national brand, the community brand and the international brand.

-- National trademark: The application for registration of the same is filed with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office (hereinafter: OEMP) based in Madrid, and the scope of protection extends only to the national territory.

-- Community trade mark: their effects extend to the territory of the European Union; it can be notified to the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (hereinafter OHIM), based in Alicante, or directly to the SPTO, which is responsible for forwarding the application to OHIM. A third option is to apply for an international trademark, whereby the European Union is defined as the territorial protection area of ??the trademark.

-- International trademark: It is effective in all countries expressly designated by the applicant and the trademark is registered. In order to apply for the international trademark, it is necessary to have a registered national trademark. The application is processed in front of the national body of each member state; it is filed in Spain with the SPTO, which refers it to the World Intellectual Property Organization (hereinafter WIPO), based in Geneva (Switzerland). After WIPO receives the application, it is sent to the designated countries where its national processing begins, and can be approved or rejected independently in each of these countries.

Let's take a look at each of the brands listed:

National brand:

concept

The trademark law defines a brand as any graphically representable symbol that serves to distinguish a company's products or services on the market from those of other companies; it grants an exclusive right and the mark can be used in legal trade and enables any third party to stop using this distinctive mark without his consent (inter alia judgment of the Supreme Court of the European Communities of 18 October 2005) if one There is a risk of confusion on the market for the addressees (eg consumers).

Of course, we can extend the scope of this definition to the community trademark and the international trademark. Such signs can be in particular considering the absolute and relative prohibitions of the trademark law.

-- Words or combinations of words, including those used to identify people.
-- Pictures, figures, symbols and drawings
-- Letters, numbers and combinations thereof
-- Three-dimensional shapes, including packaging, wrapping and the shape of the product or its presentation
-- The sounds.
-- Any combination of the characters mentioned in the previous paragraphs as an example.

Regulatory framework: :

As mentioned above, we must comply with Law 17/2001 of December 7, 2001 on Trademarks (hereinafter the Trademark Law) and its implementing provisions, which were approved by Royal Decree 687/2002 of July 12, 2002. According to the grounds of the trademark law, the reasons for the need for the law to repeal the previous 1988 law were as follows:

-- Compliance with the judgment of Constitutional Court 103/1999 of 3 June 1999, which delimits the powers that correspond to the Autonomous Communities and the State in matters of industrial property protection, finding that the legislation on industrial property rights pursuant to Article 149.1.9 the constitution falls under the exclusive competence of the state.
-- Inclusion of the relevant Community and international provisions in Spanish trademark law (in particular Directive 104/1989 of 21 December 1988 on the approximation of the laws on trademarks applicable in the individual Member States).
-- The introduction of substantive and procedural rules for brands and the need to adapt the trademark registration system to the requirements of the new information society.

Community trademark:

concept

Article 4 of the Community Trade Mark Regulation contains the definition of the Community trade mark: "Community trade marks can be any sign which can be represented graphically, in particular words including personal names, pictures, letters, numbers and the shape or presentation of the goods, insofar as such signs are suitable, Differentiate goods or services of one company from those of other companies.

Regulatory framework

-- In Spain: Title IX (Articles 84 to 86) of the Trademark Act.
-- In the European Union: Regulation 207/2009 of February 26, 2009 on the Community Trademark

International brand:

concept

The international trademark is integrated into a trademark registration system for countries integrated in the Madrid system (dating back to 1891) and includes two international contracts, the Madrid Agreement (1891) and the Madrid Protocol (1989), and is managed as indicated above.

2. Intellectual property and Spanish copyright:

All original literary, artistic or scientific creations, which are expressed in any way or with any material or immaterial medium, which are currently known or are to be invented in the future, are protected as intellectual property, including those in Articles 10 to 13 of the Intellectual Property Act listed. The intellectual property law extends its protection not only to the author who is deemed to be a natural person who creates a literary, artistic or scientific work, but also to other holders of the rights recognized by him. After prescribing the authorship of the appearance as such in the work by name, signature or identification,it regulates the joint authorship and the collective work as modalities, whereby it recognizes the rights of intellectual property to the person who discloses the work, in the case of anonymity or a pseudonym by the author, as long as it is not identified. Copyright can be transferred among the living and as a result of death; The so-called copyright personal rights can only be transferred by death, but the exploitation rights can be transferred to third parties, whereby the temporal, spatial and factual limits are set by the law: The transfer of all works that the author will create in the future is prohibited can, the obligation not to create a work in the future; as well as the transfer of the exploitation rights to the usage modalities or means of distribution,that do not exist or are unknown at the time of transmission. (Article 14 ff. LPI).

The types of assignment are the publishing contract, the contract for the theatrical and musical performance of cinema films and finally the contract for the assignment to institutions for the administration of intellectual property rights. In all these cases, the transferred persons are the owners of the protected rights, regardless of whether it is the publisher, the production company or the collecting society. (Art. 42 ff. LPI). The intellectual property law does not define the behaviors that determine illegal activity or intellectual property infringement, which are instead presented as a factual prerequisite for the implementation of the protective mechanisms that it provides to its owners; therefore it must be determined in each specific casewhether the activity in question violates the rights of its owners or not. For their protection, lawsuits for injunctive relief, compensation for material and moral damage caused, and the publication or distribution of the court or arbitration decision in the media were laid down at the perpetrator's expense. The Act implementing Directives 29/2001 and 48/2004 was updated by Act 19/2006 and Act 23/2006, respectively.

There are also peculiarities in the area of ??injunctions and orders.

3. Spanish competition law:

Law 15/2007 of 3 July on the defense of competition (LDC) has as its main objective to ensure the existence of effective competition between companies as one of the defining elements of the market economy as enshrined in Article 38 of the Spanish Constitution. In short, it tries to comply with the constitutional mandate addressed to the public authorities, to guarantee, promote and protect the freedom of entrepreneurship within the framework of the market economy. In this context, the LDC "prohibits all collective agreements, decisions or recommendations, as well as coordinated or deliberately parallel practices that aim, effect or have the effect of preventing, restricting or distorting competition on the whole or part of the national market" (Article 1.1 of the LDC). This prohibition takes the form of a series of acts which are termed illegal by the violation of free competition, so that these prohibited agreements are considered null and void and do not fall under any of the derogations provided for in the LDC itself. In many areas of the economy, however, there are numerous trade relationships that include product sales, sales channels, management services and other contractual relationships that are necessary for business development and that often involve commitments of permanence and exclusivity or prohibitions of competition that sometimes clash head-on with the frame the free competition that the LDC seeks to ensure.which are designated as illegal by the violation of free competition, so that these prohibited agreements are considered null and void and do not fall under any of the derogations provided for in the LDC itself. In many areas of the economy, however, there are numerous trade relationships that include product sales, sales channels, management services and other contractual relationships that are necessary for business development and that often involve commitments of permanence and exclusivity or prohibitions of competition that sometimes clash head-on with the frame the free competition that the LDC seeks to ensure.which are designated as unlawful by the violation of free competition, so that these prohibited agreements are considered null and void and do not fall under any of the exemptions provided for in the LDC itself.