PROTOCOL ON URGENT MEASURES AGAINST INDUSTRIAL AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT INFRINGEMENTS DURING THE MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS (24 TO 27 FEBRUARY 2020)
During the month of February and during the MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS dates, the Board of Judges of the Commercial Courts of Barcelona -for the sixth consecutive year- and the Board of Judges of the Commercial Courts of Alicante (European Union Trade Mark Court) -for the second consecutive year- have adopted a protocol for on-call service and rapid action contemplating, among others, the following measures:
a) To give preferential and priority treatment to interim injunctions petitions and/or verification of facts proceedings concerning patents and technological innovations and industrial designs that are to be launched at the Mobile World Congress, as well as infringement of trade marks and intellectual property rights, defence of competition and acts of unfair competition and illicit advertising in respect of products and materials that are the exhibited or displayed at the Congress.
b) To give preferential and priority to urgent precautionary measures (with or without a hearing) concerning patents, technological innovations and industrial designs which are to be launched at the Mobile World Congress; as well as infringement of trade marks and intellectual property rights; defence of competition and acts of unfair competition and illicit advertising, in respect of products that are the exhibited or displayed at the Congress.
c) To commit to issue a decision within a period of two days (48 hours) to requests for interim injunctions and/or verification of facts proceedings. And, within the same 48-hour period, requests for interim injunctions without a hearing of the defendant, from the moment they are submitted before the court; and a maximum period of ten days for the decision of precautionary measures with a hearing, from the moment they are submitted before the court, provided that a protective letter has been filed.
d) In the event of a conflict in industrial or intellectual property matters with another company, and in view of the reasonable fear of being the subject of an interim injunctions without a hearing, to decide on the same day (24 hours) whether to admit such interim injunction. The admission and immediate decision of the same is done with the aim of avoiding, as long as possible, the adoption of interim injunctions without a hearing of the defendant, which will allow, first, that he can expose his allegations and, second, his availability to appear before the Court immediately to decide on any request for precautionary measures without a hearing.
e) In order to assess the urgency referred to in Article 733 LEC in the adoption of an interim injunction without a hearing, unless this could jeopardize the good end of the precautionary measure, the prior behavior of the plaintiff and the speed with which he has reacted to the knowledge of the possible infringement will be decisive. In this connection, it shall be important that the application for an interim injunction has been filed with sufficient time that in good faith it does not reasonably prevent the defendant from being heard, when the owner of the allegedly infringed right has had prior knowledge of the possible infringement and has been able to submit his application with sufficient time.
f) 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 has been submitted in proceedings relating to the violation of trade secrets or in other proceedings in which its consideration is necessary for a decision on the merits. All this is within the framework of the new Trade Secrets Act 1/2019 of 20 February and Directive (EU) 2016/943 of the European Parliament and Council of 8 June 2016 and in accordance with the special Protocol for the protection of trade secrets approved by the Barcelona Commercial Court for this purpose.
g) The Commercial Court of Barcelona shall carry out the immediate execution of the precautionary measures and/or urgent proceedings which, within the scope of its specific jurisdiction, are ruled on by the European Union Trade Mark Court of Alicante in matters of European Union trade marks and Community designs, thus guaranteeing the effectiveness of the decisions adopted. To this end, the relevant channels of communication and cooperation between the two Courts shall be established.
