IP Handbook - Home
The comprehensive guide to the world's leading tax firms

At-a-glance: Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas Paseo de las Castellana, 75 – 28046, Madrid, Spain Tel: +34 902 157 530, Fax: +34 913 493 013 Email: informacion@oepm.es Website: www.oepm.es Barcelona and Madrid are the main centres of activity... [more]

Barcelona and Madrid are the main centres of activity for intellectual property in Spain; however, several other regions are also important. "Barcelona is financially very important, but a lot of inventions come from Bilbao," one partner says. In fact, a brief glance at the legal market shows that it is not uncommon for established firms to have numerous offices. At times, in decentralised Spain, the number even reaches double figures. "We try to be near our clients, so we have many offices," one partner says.

Location also plays a key role in litigation, as the courts in Barcelona enjoy a far better reputation than those in Madrid. Clients want to litigate there because of the expertise and efficiency of the judges, and consistency in applying criteria. "Theoretically, there is no difference between the commercial courts in Barcelona and Madrid," one practitioner says. "But in practice the Madrid court is overloaded and the outcome is uncertain. It's like a black hole." Interestingly, in the past year law firms have made a couple of high-profile hires from the judiciary. The full-service law firm Cuatrecasas Gonçalves Pereira hired Blas Alberto González from the Provincial Court of Barcelona and Garrigues hired Enrique Grande from one of Barcelona's commercial courts. González also built up a reputation at the Commercial Court of Granada.

Austerity measures have had a big impact on the pharmaceutical industry in Spain. It has even led to rare glimpses of support for branded pharma from the generic industry. "It's a slippery slope. There's a lot of shedding of jobs," one partner says. "There's national pressure on pharma companies to keep leverage on prices so costs don't go crazy." Unquestionably, pharmaceutical disputes still take a greatest portion of patent litigation. "Pharma is always very important, and Spain is no exception," one partner says. "It's two different worlds: pharma and the rest. You can count the real specialists on one hand but for the number of cases, pharma has the biggest portion." Despite this fact, the past 12 months witnessed some high-profile patent litigation in the electronic and mechanical sectors.

In prosecution the Spanish market has traditionally depended on the validation of patents. There is also an emerging school of firms competing for work at a European level. Following the approval of the EU patent package on December 11 2012, with Spain abstaining, it will be interesting to see how the market evolves in future editions. "We are not in the mood for the unitary patent; the country is not in the mood for that," one partner says. "It's the least of our priorities right now; Spain has left it on standby."