INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Another way of promoting the main aspects of intellectual property that we study at CEFI is through our courses and seminars. In these, we focus on the most topical and interesting issues and foster debate to enable different points of view to be heard, providing an interesting forum where leading intellectual property experts can come together.

CEFI has been working in the field of intellectual property for 38 years and has contributed to and participated in regulatory reforms such as patent laws and patent law exceptions such as the Bolar exception and the manufacturing-for-export exception known as the ‘manufacturing waiver’.

It was a pioneer in the promotion of commercial judicial training, working to raise awareness about the importance of ensuring the judiciary has judges specialising in this area, given the necessary technical qualifications. Once the commercial courts were created, CEFI participated in the training of commercial judges for more than a decade, specifically in the field of intellectual property, following an agreement signed with the General Council of the Judiciary. This training is now provided by the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office.

Judicial protection for patents is another of our priorities. The effectiveness of precautionary measures in ensuring that infringements are halted, the importance of compensation for damages and attempting to convey the complexity of patent litigation, and the importance of understanding the R&D process, during which a significant part of the patent protection period is lost, are some of the key issues to which CEFI has dedicated itself.

Our intellectual property focus is national and essentially European, deriving from the European patent, harmonised legislation at EU level, and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

CEFI participates in the public information procedure for draft regulations, offering observations and opinions that contribute to the drafting of legal texts. In the section The Foundation > activities > public information procedure on this website you can consult the specific procedures in which we have participated. In the field of intellectual property we highlight the following: our observations on the transposition of the Trademark Directive, our opinions on the preliminary draft bill for partially amending the Spanish Trademark Act (Ley de Marcas), our opinions on the Draft Royal Decree enacting Law 24/2015, of 24 July, on Patents, and our opinions on the Draft Ministerial Order amending the maximum time frames for certain formalities in the procedures for granting and registering patents.