On 2 June, over 80 industrial property experts and researchers attended the return of the face-to-face format at the IP Perspectives seminar. The event that we put together at ABG Intellectual Property celebrated its eighth edition in Madrid with a schedule divided into four presentations in which seven experts in industrial and intellectual property participated.
Juan Arias, ABG IP’s managing partner, opened the event with a tribute to the co-founders of the firm, Vicente González and Francisco Bernardo, and a review of the two years during which the event was held online. Obtaining the ISO 9001 and 27001 certifications, being awarded seventh place in the list for Europe’s Leading Patent Law Firms prepared by the Financial Times or the expansion and strengthening of the team to 17 Patent Attorneys, were some of the achievements that Juan Arias mentioned in his welcome speech.
Unitary Patent and Trade Secrets
The Unitary Patent and, more specifically, how to decide whether to opt-out from the jurisdiction of the Unified Patent Court during the period prior to the entry into force of the new European system (known as the “sunrise period”), was the subject of the first presentation of the day. Agustín Alconada, partner in the Biotechnology department, and Rodrigo Manzanares, lawyer from the Legal and Litigation department, both from ABG IP, led this presentation on one of the major IP topics at this time.
Ignacio Pérez, head of Intellectual Property at Cepsa, followed up by explaining
how the multinational handles confidential information and its trade secrets.
As he explained in detail, a complex system has been designed and implemented,
with the help of ABG IP, that preserves inventions and the know-how that
research departments develop with the aim of protecting their innovation
against third parties. He also assured that the confidential information
acquired from third parties is also treated according to that which is agreed,
thus preventing the rights of those third parties from being infringed.
European Union Trademarks and reform of the Spanish Industrial Property laws
European Union trademarks and their similarities and differences with the Unitary Patent were the subject of the third presentation of the day. Christine Weimann, Trademark Advisor and ABG IP’s Associate, was in charge of explaining the particularities regarding its processing, while Laura Montoya, Head of the Legal and Litigation Department, and also an Associate at the firm, explained the path to follow to legally assert these industrial property rights.
The Director of the Department of Patents and Technological Information of the SPTO, Mª José de Concepción Sánchez, put the finishing touch to the session explaining the pending reform of the Spanish laws on patents, utility models and industrial designs. ABG IP’s managing partner and also Patent Agent, Juan Arias, accompanied her in order to delve into the main upcoming developments, including the reintroduction of provisional patent applications or the possibility for inventions of pharmaceutical compositions to be protected by means of utility models.
Next IP Perspectives: 6 October in Bilbao
In total, there were more than four hours of presentations during which current issues in the industrial property sector were discussed and which allowed attendees to clear up their doubts, share their concerns and be advised by great experts in the sector.
The next event will be held in Bilbao on 6 October this year. Information and program by clicking here.
