News

NEW EUROPEAN DATA PROTECTION REGULATION

May the 25th 2018 will mark a defining point in the regulation of privacy throughout Europe. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and Council, dated 27th of April 2016, has finally come into effect – after a long and complex legal process initiated in 2012-, regarding the protection of physical persons with respect to the processing of personal data and the free circulation of said data. The Directive 95/46/EC has consequently been abolished.

Said Regulation, (henceforth, the GRDP - General Registry of Data Protection ['RGPD – Registro General de Protección de Datos']) –is applied directly to Member States (without the need for national transposition), although a transitory period until May 25th 2018 has been established for its application, to all effects.

Increase of Renewal Trademark Publication Fees in Saudi Arabia

arabia

Effective from 24th March 2016, new official publication fees for renewal of trademark registration in ONE class will be implemented. The Saudi Trademark Office has substantially raised the official publication fees from US$80 to US$800 for each class.

Asian businesses fire up growth in PCT applications

rawpixel com shutterstock com 2 Asian businesses were the key contributors to a record number of patent applications filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) last year, according to data published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) today.

The total number filed in 2015 was 218,000, a 1.7% increase from the previous year.

Companies based in China, South Korea and Japan recorded increases in the number of PCT filings last year. Chinese and South Korean filers accounted for a 16.8% and 11.5% growth of PCT applications last year.

China-based Huawei headed the list for a second year in a row with 3,898 filings, while fellow Chinese company ZTE recorded the third most-filed PCT applications with 2,155. US semiconductor company Qualcomm was the second biggest filer, recording 2,442 applications.

EU Regulation No. 2015/02424

EU lawbooks

Brief information about.....

New EU Trade Mark reforms were enacted in December, which introduce some important very important practical changes on matters relating to Community Trade Marks “CTMs”. Some changes will be implemented from March 23rd 2016; others in September 2017. We have set out below the most important and relevant of them.

Change in name for the Office and CTMs

The OHIM will now be called the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Community Trade Marks will now be called European Union Trade Marks (EUTMs).

Filling

The facility of filing EU Trade Mark applications at national offices is discontinued. Applications must now be filed directly at the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

Claiming priority

Priority claims will now be have to be filed together with an application, not subsequently.

Change in fees and the fee structure

“Three classes for the price of one” is gone. Instead, each class will carry a separate fee. This applies to filing fees and also renewal fees, too.

Change in renewal fee due date

Renewal fees must now be paid by the renewal date, rather than at the end of that month.

Catalunya copa el 34% de las patentes españolas en Europa

img tperez 20160303 190843 imagenes lv bloomberg m1057629 kdqB U40174058671sQD 992x558LaVanguardia Web Conseguir una economía basada en la innovación es un reto de los países desarrollados para garantizar un crecimiento de calidad, y el número de patentes suele utilizarse como termómetro. La Oficina Europa de Patentes hizo ayer balance de las solicitudes de patentes presentadas durante el último año, unos datos de los que puede hacerse una lectura optimista: las solicitudes de patentes (67.598) presentadas por los 28 países de la Unión Europea crecieron un 0,3%; las solicitudes procedentes de España (1.527) crecieron al 3,8%, y rompen dos años de descensos. Del total español de solicitudes de patentes, 515, es decir, el 34%, han sido formalizadas por empresas catalanas, un porcentaje superior al del resto de comunidades, que además refleja un incremento del 5,75% sobre el año anterior. En el 2015 se presentaron en la Oficina Europea de Patentes 160.000 solicitudes procedentes de todo el mundo, un 4,8% más que en el año 2014.