E-commerce, intellectual property rights & COVID-19: the survival of the fittest

Fear of COVID-19 has impacted people’s habits and behaviors, which turn more frequently to the online world where they are able to find a safe harbor in these troubled times. This has prompted suppliers of goods and services’ providers worldwide to establish e-commerce stores and to update their terms and conditions, to revamp their advertising […]

The key to patenting software: first solve the problem, then write the code

The Spanish legal system does not consider computer programs to be inventions as such, so that, in itself, software is not patentable. However, inventions implemented using a computer, this is, computer programs that solve a technical problem can be registered as patents. Therefore, the key to registration is the ability to demonstrate that executing the […]

During lockdown applications for utility models to stop viruses grew in Spain

During the state of emergency, at least 110 applications for utility models were filed for products related to the fight against the pandemic. For individuals and small and medium-sized companies, utility models are an attractive way of protecting rights given the speed at which such applications are processed. The COVID-19 crisis led Spain to declare […]

New criteria for protecting three-dimensional trademarks

It is not always easy to determine the minimum threshold for distinctiveness when protecting a three-dimensional trademark. Given the disparate criteria applied by European justice in this matter, and with a view to providing a joint solution to the issue, a guide for Common Practice has been issued for the procedures that were put in […]

Dispute regarding the European registration of the trademark ‘Neymar’: beating them all to it doesn’t always count

In the race for ownership of a trademark, the principles of loyalty and business ethics prevail over the ‘first to file rule’ according to which whoever gets there first and is the quickest to register the mark holds exclusive rights. We look at the ‘Neymar’ case, in which bad faith in registering the trademark led […]

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