Conclusions from the first few months following the entry into force of the new Patent Act

Conclusions from the first few months following the entry into force of the new Patent Act

Following the entry into force of the new Patent Act (Act No. 24/2015) on 1 April 2017, we can now draw some conclusions from the first provisional figures for patent and utility model filings.

Source: SPTO: http://www.oepm.es/es/sobre_oepm/actividades_estadisticas/estadisticas/estadisticas/index.html

The first is the increase in filings in the final month of the old Patent Act (Act No. 11/1986) with respect to previous months. In some cases applicants will no doubt have sought to take advantage of certain provisions of the old Patent Act, such as the possibility of prosecuting the patent application under the general granting procedure, without preliminary examination, or the requirement of local novelty in the case of utility model applications.

However, although the number of filings in the first month of the entry into force of the new Act was very low, due mainly to the increase in filings in the preceding month, in May the number of filings increased considerably and it is to be assumed that in the coming months filing numbers will reach the steady levels expected.

It should be noted that in these first few months, applicants have been opting for utility models, given the less demanding novelty requirements.

If these figures become consolidated in the near future, Spain will have a system that produces strong patents and puts it on a par with other neighbouring industrialised countries. It is to be noted that among the main changes in the new Act, the most important aspect worth highlighting is that it establishes a single granting procedure for patent applications, in which applications must overcome substantive examination, assessing, among other requirements, novelty and inventive step.