What is a Commercial Name Registration?

A Commercial Name Registration is a title giving the exclusive right to use a sign or denomination that identifies at a physical or legal person in the exercise of a corporate activity. It is used to difference it from other identical or similar activities from other companies. The Commercial Name distinguishes the company that creates or commercializes the products or provides the services and the trademark distinguishes the products or services that the company manufactures, commercializes or provides.

The Commercial Names could be the patronymic names, the registered names, the denominations for legal people, the denominations for fantasy, the denominations referring to the object of corporate activity, the anagrams and logos, and the images, figures and draws.

The Commercial Names, as industrial property titles, are independent from the companies' names registered on the Registry of Commerce.

The Commercial Name Registration is protected for 10 years from the filing date and it can be renewed indefinitely by identical periods.

What is a European Union Trademark Registration?

The European Union Trademark Registration is an sole register of trademark that applies in every single country within the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.

The European Union Trademark registration its unitary: its protection extends to the whole territory of the European Union. If the number of country members increases, the protection of the Community trademark application or registration will be applied automatically to the new country member, without further formalities.

The European Union Trademark is protected for 10 years and it can be renewed indefinitely by identical periods.

What is an International Trademark Registration?

The international way allows an international trademark application processed before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) headquarters in Geneva. Currently it can be designated up to 93 different country members, in each of which the mark will have the same validity as a national registration.

The International Trademark Registration is given by 10 years from the filing date. It can be renewed indefinitely by identical periods and the cost will depend on the designated countries and in the protected classes.  The International Trademark must be based in a national trademark registered in the origin country, or in a Community Trademark registered before the OHIM.

What is an Industrial Design Registration?

This is a registration giving to its owner the exclusive right to use and to prohibit the use of it by third parties without his consent, about the total appearance or just one piece of the product derived from the features of, in particular, the lines, outlines, colors, shapes, texture or materials of the product or its ornamentation. The designs can be two-dimensional or three-dimensional.

The Spanish Industrial Designs are protected for 5 years from the filing date and it could be renewed for one or more successive periods of 5 years up to a maximum of 25 years.

What is a Community Design Registration?

The Community Design Registration (drawings or models) is an sole registration that applies in every single country within the European Union. If the number of country members increases, the protection of the Community design application or registration will be applied automatically to the new country member, without further formalities.

The Community Design Registration is protected for 5 years from the filing date and it could be renewed for one or more successive periods of 5 years up to a maximum of 25 years.

What is an International Design Registration?

The International Design Registration (drawings or models) is an sole registration processed before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) headquarters in Geneva. Currently it can be designated up to 63 different country members, in each of which the design will have the same validity as a national registration.

The International Industrial Design is registered for 5 years from the filing date and it can be renewed by another identical period as minimum and up to the maximum allowed by the national laws in each designed country.

What is a Patent Registration?

A Patent Registration is a title giving the right to exploit in exclusive an invention, not allowing third parties its manufacture, sell or use without the consent of the principal. The patent can be referred to a new procedure, a new equipment, a new product or an improvement of them.

The duration of the Patent Registration is non-extendable 20 years from the filing date.

What is a Utility Model Registration?

The Utility Model protects the inventions The utility model protects inventions with one inventive range lower than the protected by the patent registration, consisting, for example, give a new utility or practical advantage to an object. The device, instrument or tool to be protected by the utility model is defined by its usefulness and practicality, not its aesthetic as in Industrial Design Registration.

The protection given by the Utility Model Registration is similar to the given by the Patent Registration but its legal life is non-extendable 10 years from the filing date.

What is a PCT Patent?

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) allows to deposit just one international patent application in 148 countries and also allows the international search report (State of the Art Report) is binding for all the designated countries within the request, so that it won't have to be done again in the respective national phases.

The PCT system (or EURO-PCT if it also includes the European Patent) is a form of cooperation among the signatory states of the Treaty for the presentation, search and preliminary exam for the Patents applications, assigning a unique presentation date that will be valid on each of the designated countries once the national phases start.

What is an European Patent Registration?

The European Patent Registration is a sole patent registration that gives protection in the most part of the European countries. Currently the number of countries belonging to the European Patent Convention (EPC) is 38, namely: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Turkey.

The European Patent Registration is given for non-extendable 20 years from filing date.

What is the Intellectual Property (Copyright)?

The copyright of a literary, artistic or scientific work corresponds to the author by the mere act of creating it. He is considered author to the individual creative work. If the work is disclosed anonymously or under a pseudonym or sign, the exercise of the rights of intellectual property on it corresponds to the natural or legal person who published with the consent of the author, provided that this does not reveal your identity.

Intellectual property laws protect two different types of rights: copyrights, and related rights. The first set the protection to creative people of works of the intellect; the so-called "rights neighboring or related", are, fundamentally, the rights of artists performers, producers of phonograms, producers of audiovisual recordings, broadcasting organizations, those relating to the protection of mere photographs and the protection of certain editorial productions, and, finally, the sui generis right on database.

From the legal point of view can be distinguished two kinds of rights inherent to copyright:

• Moral rights: the right to the authorship of the work, the right to the integrity and the right to decide the way in which the work will be. These rights are inalienable and transferable.
• Economic rights: are the exploitation rights of the work, i.e. the rights of reproduction, distribution, public communication, making available and transformation. These rights can be transmitted.