01
Why manage the Industrial Property of my company?
It is necessary to manage the Industrial Property of companies in the same way as it is necessary to manage the rest of the Assets that form part of the Balance Sheet.
The fact that they are Intangible does not deprive them of their status as Company Heritage, with all that entails. It is therefore necessary to preserve the economic value of own Patents, Trademarks and Designs:
A. Being aware of the updated status of the Industrial Property Portfolio at all times
B. Evaluating the adequacy of this Portfolio to the protection and exploitation needs of the company.
C. Exercising an action to monitor monopoly rights, preventing third parties from acquiring similar rights that devalue the own Patent and Trademark Portfolio.
02
Trademarks and their protection as “registered trademarks” ®
What is a Brand? Brands are those signs (names, logos, three-dimensional shapes, sounds, smells and combinations of all of them) that serve to distinguish a certain product or service from another different one in the Market.
Why is it necessary to register it? In order to obtain the Right of Exclusive Use of the aforementioned brand, with the aim of preventing unauthorized third parties from using it in an unwanted way, causing this way, confusion in the Market.
The acquisition of a trademark registration implies the obtaining of a Property Right on a Distinctive Sign, with an indefinite nature. In such a way that a brand becomes a Corporate Heritage and, as such, constitutes a factor in the valuation of the company that owns it.
Geographic scope of protection: It ranges from the most basic that is that of a certain State, to global forms of protection, such as International Trademarks or Community Trademarks.
03
Are domains trademarks on the Internet?
Domains on the “internet” are the denominations that identify a certain “web site” or “web site”, and, as such identifiers, constitute a form of use of the brand, when the web to which they direct is the ‘a company or business or that of a publicly known entity.
However, the use of brands on the Internet goes beyond internet addresses (domains), since, on the same website, brands (names, graphics, etc.) can be used as content .
In addition, the same “ICANN” (international regulatory body for domain registration), increasingly subordinates the regulation of the granting of this type of registration to international trademark regulations, which, unlike that of domains, has the character of Law, in most WTO (World Trade Organization) countries.
In summary: It is advisable to register the domains that you want to use to identify a website for advertising purposes; however, it is also appropriate to protect through their appropriate registration as Trademarks, those distinctives (designations and/or graphics and/or three-dimensional shapes) that identify products or services, the exclusivity of use of which must be preserved, even if they are used on the Internet.
04
Commercial Names
Although the national and international rules tend to protect the rights of the owners of a certain Company Name registered before the corresponding commercial registers, against possible usurpation by third parties who intend to register the same names as trademarks before the Registers of Patents and Brands, the truth is that it is necessary to protect Trade Names as Brands, if these are applied to distinguish products and/or services in the Market.
05
Designs, product presentation and creations in general
The methods of protection of the exclusive right of product designs and of the form of presentation thereof (packaging, etc.) can be of two types:
The Industrial Model
The Three-Dimensional Brand
Although both modalities allow the obtaining of an exclusive right on the design in question, the suitability of one or the other modality will depend on each specific case.
Therefore, we recommend in this, as in the rest of the cases, to consult a qualified Industrial Property professional, since there are no “standard” formulas applicable to all cases. It is therefore appropriate to analyze the characteristics and needs for each specific case in order to opt for one or another modality.
06
Why manage the Industrial Property of my company?
Inventions refer to human creations of an original nature, which, in order to be patentable (exclusively protectable), must meet all the following requirements:
- be new
The condition of “novelty” assumes that an invention is not included in the so-called “State of the Art”, that is to say, that it has not been made known to the public previously or that there is no other invention that is similar to the invention that is intended to be patented.
In Spain, the novelty condition must be “worldwide” if the invention’s protection option is Patent; and “national” if the form of protection appropriate to the invention is that of “Utility Model”. - Conduct an inventive activity
“Inventive activity” refers to the fact that an invention cannot be derived in an obvious way for a person skilled in the art from the existing state of the art. - Be susceptible to an industrial application
As for the “industrial application” condition, it obviously refers to the fact that the invention to be patented must be applicable to industry while providing improvements to its operation.