Durán-Corretjer SLP

World Intellectual Property Day reminds us of the fundamental role that intellectual property rights, such as patents, trade marks, industrial designs and copyrights, play in stimulating innovation and creativity.

This year, in honour of International Intellectual Property Day on April 26, 2025, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) pays tribute to musical creations, considered as means of creative expression and instruments for the creation of intellectual property rights.

Music is one of the fundamental pillars of creative expression, and from traditional melodies to contemporary compositions that dominate digital platforms, music has always been a powerful form of communication, cultural identity, and social transformation. However, beyond their artistic and emotional value, musical creations also represent assets protected by copyright, granting their creators recognition and the legal tools to control and profit from their works.

From DURÁN-CORRETJER we wish you a Happy World Intellectual Property Day and encourage you to celebrate by playing your favourite song.

The Judges of the Commercial Courts of Barcelona (Commercial Court of Barcelona) and the Judges of the Commercial Courts of Alicante (Trademark Courts of the European Union) in their joint meeting on December 02, 2024, have adopted a Protocol on-call service and rapid response during the month of February and between March 3, 2025 and March 6, 2025, on the occasion of the celebration in the city of Barcelona of the Mobile World Congress, the most important world congress in the communication and mobile telephony.

This Protocol is provided for those cases of possible conflicts between the companies participating in this event that could give rise to a request for precautionary measures, the objective being to avoid as much as possible adopting said measures without hearing the defendant; and at the same time, to guarantee the adoption of effective measures to protect their industrial and intellectual property rights.

Among the measures that have been adopted, reference is made to the preferential and priority processing of preliminary proceedings petitions and/or verification of facts proceedings, urgent precautionary measures (with or without a hearing), the commitment to resolve within a period of two days (48 hours) the requests for interim injunctions petitions and/or verification of facts proceedings, to resolve on the same day of their presentation (24 hours) the admission of requests for protective letters and to adopt, ex officio or at the request of a party, the specific measures necessary to preserve the confidentiality of information that may constitute a trade secret and the adoption and extension of the immediate execution of precautionary measures and/or urgent preliminary proceedings /or verification of facts proceedings to acts carried out in the metaverse or in virtual environments or to acts generated by automated mechanisms, software, algorithms or artificial intelligence systems.

We are pleased to announce that Durán-Corretjer has been recognized in the 2025 edition of the World Trademark Review (WTR) magazine, which brings together the world's leading law firms and trade mark experts, with the highest distinction within the gold category (Band 1) in matters related to the advice, prosecution and definition of the trade mark protection strategy.

This new recognition confirms the firm's ongoing commitment to quality, professional ethics and attention to detail, values that have been key to its success throughout more than 120 years of experience.

This distinction places Durán-Corretjer among the leading law firms in Spain in the advice and prosecution of trade marks, consolidating its position as an undisputed benchmark in the area of Intellectual Property.

Last January 7, 2025, the Government of Saudi Arabia deposited its instrument of accession to the 1999 Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement bringing the total number of countries covered by the Hague System to 82.

Saudi Arabia becomes the 76th contracting party to the 1999 Act and 82nd member of the Hague Union.

As from April 7, 2025, users of the Hague System can already apply for international protection of designs in Saudi Arabia in international applications.

Costa Rica has signed an agreement with the European Patent Office so that, when it will enter into force, it will be possible to validate a granted European patent in Costa Rica, as it happens already in other countries like Morocco, Moldova, Tunisia, Cambodia, Georgia and Laos, in addition to the other 39 member states of the European Patent Convention.

Costa Rica will be the first validation country in America.

Under the validation agreement, European patents validated in Costa Rica will have the same effect and be subject to the same conditions as national patents of this country.

The European Union has concluded the Revision of the European Union legislation concerning Industrial Designs, that is to say, the Design Directive (Dir. 98/71/EC) and the Community Design Regulation (EC No. 6/2002) and the same will be enter into force progressively during the course of the next three years.

The main changes include, among others, the change of name from “Community Design” to “European Union Design”, the enlargement of the definitions of the concept of “design”, “product” and the scope of the protection of the registered designs, and the addition of the so called “repair clause”.

On the other hand, WIPO Member States adopted last November 22, 2024 the Riyadh Design Law Treaty to create a formalities harmonized framework to protect in the countries that will ratify the Treaty.

Our managing partner Luis-Alfonso Durán represented BusinessEurope, European industry organization, at the annual Trilateral Conference in Tokyo that took place the 14 and 15 October 2024, where the Commissioner of the Japanese Patent Office, the Undersecretary and Director of the United States Patent Office and the President of the European Patent Office met to discuss with representatives from Japanese, North American and European industry the cooperation of these three important Offices on Intellectual Property matters.

The discussions included topics like how to build a resilient infrastructure to promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation, how to enhance the strategic use of IP intelligence for business growth, the role of Patent Offices for granting high-quality patents, and how to support SMEs and startups on IP matters.

Luis-Alfonso Durán and the BusinessEurope delegation with the President of the European Patent Office, Mr. António Campinos, in Tokyo.

The annual meeting of the AIPPI (International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property) took place in Hangzhou from 19 to 22 October in which Luis Durán attended on behalf of Durán-Corretjer.

During this event, various current issues in the world of intellectual property are being discussed, such as the protection of intellectual property in China, patent infringement lawsuits within the framework of the Unified Patent Court, drug discovery and artificial intelligence, the use of trade marks in pharmaceutical products or patenting in the field of microbiomes.
 

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the Spanish Constitution contain a very relevant principle today, especially at a political level: the fundamental principle of the presumption of innocence. Specifically, the Spanish Constitution establishes that all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty and legally declared.

In a recent ruling by the General Court of the European Union, it has been analysed and decided that a person's name cannot be registered, even if they have not been declared guilty by a final judgment, in those cases in which the consumer public could associate said name with criminal activities and, consequently, be contrary to to public policy and to accepted principles of morality.

On April 17, the General Court of the European Union issued a judgment in Case T-255/23 refusing registration of the European Union trade mark No. 18568583 “PABLO ESCOBAR” (word), for various goods and services in classes 3, 5, 9, 10, 12 to 16, 18, 20, 21, 24 to 26 and 28 to 45.

In the aforementioned judgment, the Court indicated that the absolute prohibition of registration of Article 7.1.f of the European Union trade mark Regulation (hereinafter, EUTMR), which prohibits the registration of trade marks contrary to public order or morality, was applicable to the trade mark application in question. In reaching this conclusion, the Court focused on the perception of the sign “PABLO ESCOBAR” which, , would be associated with the figure of the leader of the Medellin cartel and alleged narco-terrorist, as well as the crimes committed by the aforementioned cartel, which were contrary to the ethical and moral principles of the society of all Member States of the European Union. In addition, the public would perceive the trade mark as highly offensive, as an apology for crime and a trivialization of the suffering of thousands of people killed or injured by the Medellin cartel.

In this regard, it should be noted that, as the applicant for the trade mark pointed out at the time, Pablo Escobar was never convicted of the alleged crimes he was accused of, as he died at the hands of the police before he could be tried. In addition, the EUTMR itself, in Recital 21, establishes that said Regulation must be applied in such a way as to guarantee full respect for fundamental rights and freedoms. In this case, and despite the provisions of the previous paragraph and the provisions of Article 48 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on the presumption of innocence, the Court concluded that the trade mark should be refused because it fell within the prohibition of Article 7.1.f EUTMR, even though Pablo Escobar had not been convicted by the courts, since the determining factor for the application of said article was the perception that the relevant public might have of his figure, which would associate the sign “PABLO ESCOBAR” with the name of the leader of the Medellin cartel and a symbol of organised crime that had caused much suffering. This interpretation by the Court opens the door to possible refusals of trade marks consisting of names of people, especially political or public figures, who may be associated by a part of the public with certain criminal behaviour despite the fact that no final conviction has been handed down against them, in those cases in which it can be proven that the public could perceive such actions as contrary to public policy and to accepted principles of morality, taking into account their level of sensitivity and tolerance at the time the trade mark application was made.

We are pleased to announce that DURÁN-CORRETJER has been recognized once again by the Financial Times and Statista in their special report “Europe's Leading Patent Law Firms 2024” as one of the best Patent Law firms in Europe, consolidating its leadership position in the sector. This is the second consecutive year in which the firm has received this distinguished recognition.

As a novelty compared to the previous year, DURÁN-CORRETJER has been especially highlighted in the area of Biotechnology, Food & Healthcare, in addition to other technical areas.

Recognition Areas:

• Biotechnology, Food & Healthcare
• Mechanical Engineering
• Chemistry
• Electrical Engineering
• IT and Software

This new recognition is a testimony to the dedication, effort and experience of the team of Industrial Property Agents, European Patent Agents and Attorneys of the firm during the 122 years of experience of DURÁN-CORRETJER and reinforces its firm commitment to continue offering all its clients a first-level advisory service as well as guaranteeing a deep understanding of the evolution and complexities of the sector.