Spain

(Cross-border) jurisdiction, (Indirect) infringement, Austria, Enforcement, European Union, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Novelty, Opposition, Priority right, Revocation, Spain, Sufficiency of disclosure, United Kingdom, United States of America, Validity

(Rospatt Osten Pross)/

Do we need a Community Patent? Do we need a European Patent Litigation System? Or does the current fragmented system have a hidden wisdom behind it? Judge for yourself!

(Indirect) infringement, Case Law, Spain

(Clifford Chance)/

On 30 June 2010, the Supreme Court held that the ‘Bolar provision’ introduced by Law 29/2006, which implemented Directive 2004/27 into Spanish law, may not be applied retrospectively. In addition, the Supreme Court revoked the view expressed by the Court of Appeal of Pamplona and other provincial Courts, which had considered that the ‘Bolar provision’…

Spain

(Clifford Chance)/

On 3 August 2007 and 5 December 2007, Commercial Court Number 1 of Barcelona ordered a preliminary injunction preventing the launch of all the generics of a well-known medicament used to treat schizophrenia. Also, for the purpose of maintaining the status quo, the Court ordered for the judgment be notified to the Ministry of Health…

Spain

(Clifford Chance)/

Under Spanish law, when the first generic version of a medicament of reference (i.e. original medicament) is authorized, the setting of the price of the generic triggers the inclusion of the medicament of reference in the so-called “price reference system”, even if the generic is not launched onto the market until the patent protecting the…

Procedure, Spain

(Clifford Chance)/ /1 Comment

One of the strategies used by manufacturers of generic drugs to try to capture the market of the “reference product” when the patent protecting the latter expires is to present the generic as a cheap alternative to the “reference product”. This raises several interesting questions, such as whether or not a generics company, for the…

Damages, Injunction, Procedure, Spain

(Clifford Chance)/

Like other countries, such as Australia or Germany, a “petty” patent or “utility model” can be obtained in Spain for so-called minor inventions. They present a twofold distinction with regard to “full-fledged” patents, when it comes to examining their patentability: (i) only documents disclosed in Spain form part of the state of the art; (ii)…

Damages, Spain

(Clifford Chance)/

EC Directive 2004/48 (known as the “Enforcement Directive”) was implemented in Spain through Law 19/2006, which sought to harmonise, among other aspects, the criteria to establish damages in legal proceedings involving the infringement of intellectual property rights. In cases of patent infringement where the complainant claims profits lost or damages caused by the defendant, one…

Spain

(Clifford Chance)/ /1 Comment

On 12 July 2010 the Supreme Court handed down a long-waited judgment, dismissing a complaint filed by a manufacturer of generic medicaments against a patent owner that had threatened more than one hundred wholesalers with patent infringement actions. The facts of the case go back to 2003, when a Court of First Instance of Madrid…