SPTO develops plans to accelerate the adoption of Report of State of the Art for national patent applications
The Spanish Patent and Trademark Office is developing plans that will allow applicants of a national patent to speed up the process of obtaining a Report on the State of the Art (RSA) during the registration of a national patent, and before the expiration of the priority date enshrined in the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. This priority date allows extending the protection granted by a patent to other contracting states, maintaining the filing date, so long it is requested within the 12 month- term after the filing, and deposition is made in another contracting state.
Due to the fact the RSA is the key stone in every internalization plan envisaged by applicants, the SPTO has developed certain “acceleration” plans among which we may name the following:
- The Patent Prosecution Highway
- A Pilot Plan already in force for patents in the field of food.
For this second plan to be applied, the national patent applications must meet the following requirements:
- Overcome the formal and prior art test (art. 31 Spanish Patent Law), which will allow to conclude whether the application meets the patentability requirements contained in arts. 4-9 Spanish Patent Law and also if formal requirements are met (drawings, claims, etc), too.
- That the RSA is requested and the corresponding fee are satisfied as soon as possible. Thank to the “early-bird” payment of the fees, applicants will have more time to envisage their internationalization plans. It will also allow the SPTO to adopt the RSA within 9 months from the application date.
In Salvador Ferrandis And Partners, we believe the acceleration plans set out by the STPO are great news to applicants of national patents. They may also be an incentive so that more patents are registered at international level. In any case, it is to be seen how the applicants will react to the need of paying the fee at a so early stage in the registration process. It is to be seen how applicants will reach to this requirement.