Friday, January 04, 2008

Patents in Spain

The other day I had a meeting with the Spanish Office for Patents and Trademarks. They gave me some high-level indicators of the situation of patents in Spain. The figures are taken from the notes I took during the conversation, so they may not be accurate. Nevertheless, they are interesting and show the (poor) state of play in Spain.


  • 3000 Patents per year in Spain
    —CSIC: 130 patents/y
    —All univs: 300 patents/y
    —Grupo Antolin: 20/y
    —Most patents are in pharma sector
    —350 patents/year in ICT area
  • EPO denies 20% of patents
    —What is accepted usually is modified since original filing
  • ICT patents typically last around 7 to 8 years
  • 5% of patents reach market
  • Two types of patents
    —High quality (with exam)
    —Low quality (no exam)
  • Filing patent in Spain costs 480€, legal support up to 3000€
  • 12-18 months between filing patent in Spain and decision of world-wide coverage (involves costs)

Judge for yourself, but I think we have some work to do here ...