Patent and Trademark Rights: Legal Framework in Spain

Posted on Mar 7, 2025 in Law

Contents of Patent Rights

Within the scope of patent rights, and for a limited time, we find the exclusive right to a patented product. The patent may be subject to legal transactions, conveying its ownership or its use, through what is known as a license. A patent can be subject to joint ownership, for example, among several inventors.

Article 15 of the Spanish Patent Law

  1. Inventions made by an employee during the term of their contract or employment relationship with a company, which are the result of a research activity explicitly or implicitly forming part of their contract, belong to the employer.
  2. The employee who authored the invention is not entitled to additional remuneration, except where their personal contribution to the invention and its importance to the company obviously go beyond the explicit or implicit terms of the contract or employment relationship.

Article 16 of the Spanish Patent Law

Inventions that do not fulfill the conditions laid down in Article 15.1 belong to the employee who created them.

Utility Models

Both patents and utility models are titles granted by the State, providing the holder with a temporary monopoly for the exploitation of the protected results. If the requirements of the law are met, the holder has the right to prevent others, for the duration of this monopoly, from manufacturing, selling, or commercially using the protected invention in Spain. This right may be subject to legal transactions, such as sales or licenses. It is a form of property that loses value over time, disappearing when the term of the monopoly ends, at which point it enters the public domain.

Industrial Designs

Industrial design refers to the appearance conferred on a product to facilitate its voluntary market presence. It is justified by the desire to make that object unique. Registration is dependent upon novelty and uniqueness. The right to register the design corresponds to its author and their successors.

Distinctive Signs Regime

This section addresses exclusive rights that distinguish an employer in the market, their products, and their establishment through signage. This regime is governed by the Trademark Law of December 7, 2001.

Article 4 of the Trademark Law

  1. A trademark means any sign capable of graphic representation which serves to distinguish in the market the goods or services of one undertaking from those of others.
  2. Such signs may, in particular, be:
    • Words or combinations of words.
    • Images, figures, symbols, and drawings.
    • Letters, numerals, and their combinations.
    • Three-dimensional forms, including wrappers, packaging, and the shape of the product or its presentation.
    • Sounds.
    • Any combination of the signs mentioned above, without limitation.

To obtain trademark rights, registration with the “Spanish Patent and Trademark Office” is necessary. This law protects trademarks, including “notorious” ones, which are generally known in the trade sector to which they are addressed.

Contents of Trademark Rights (Article 34)

  1. The registration of a trademark gives its owner the exclusive right to use it in trade.
  2. The owner of a registered trademark may prohibit third parties from using, without their consent, in trade:
  3. In particular, the owner may prohibit:
    • Affixing the sign to products or their presentation.
    • Offering products, marketing them, or stocking them for these purposes, or offering or supplying services under the sign.
    • Importing or exporting products under the sign.
    • Using the sign on business papers and in advertising.
    • Using the sign in telecommunication networks and as a domain name.
    • Affixing the sign to wrappers, packaging, labels, or other means of identification or ornamentation of the product or service; processing or providing them; or manufacturing, preparing, offering, selling, importing, exporting, or saving any of these means incorporating the sign.
  4. The trademark holder may prevent traders or distributors from removing that trademark without their express consent, but may not prevent them from separately adding their own marks or logos, provided it does not impair the distinctiveness of the principal mark.
  5. The provisions of this Article shall apply to an unregistered trademark thatis well known in Spain within the meaning of Article 6 bis of the Paris Convention, except as provided in subparagraph (c) of paragraph 2.