SPAIN IMPLEMENTS THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE FOR THE CANCELATION OF MARKS AS OF JANUARY 14, 2023

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Several amendments were entailed to Spanish Trademark Act 17/2001, after the transposition of Directive (EU) 2015/2436 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of December 16, 2015.

Among these modifications, as of January 14, 2023, the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office will have direct and exclusive jurisdiction for the substantiation of proceedings for the declaration of invalidity or revocation of a trademark, with the exception of the possibility of raising these claims through counterclaim actions.

In this regard, the civil jurisdictional procedure is replaced by an administrative procedure, which is expected to involve lower costs and less time.

The SPTO has published a guide (Manual Informativo sobre Nulidad y Caducidad) available through its official website, in order to resolve possible queries and uncertainties about these new procedures.