On the 25th of July, 2015, the new patent law 24/2015 of the 24th of July was published in the Official Spanish State Bulletin (BOE). Without prejudice to that set forth in the transitory provisions, this law will abrogate the current law 11/1986 of the 20th of March. This is a significant reform, which affects a large number of precepts and introduces significant changes in matter, which justifies the fact that a simple partial reform of the current regulation (like those that have occurred up to date) will prove insufficient in this instance.

This reform was mainly driven by the need to adapt to a reality that has changed notably since 1986, the move from national concessionary proceedings to international proceedings and growth in terms of both the number and proportion of patents processed via the latter, in addition to the incorporation of Industrial Property via the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement and the amendments made to European Union Law.

There are four main aims of this new law 24/2015, namely: (i) amending the legal framework to current needs; (ii) to make it possible for Spanish innovators to obtain solid titles quickly; (iii) to simplify the protection of innovation by means of patents and to make the same more flexible; and (iv) to reinforce legal security, establishing one single system for granting patents and examining novelty and inventive step prior to this. 

As such, the current optional or à la carte system has been eliminated, whereby prior examination in this system may be requested from the Spanish Patent and Trademarks Office (OEPM) on a voluntary basis, which means that as of the date the new law comes into effect, patents must be granted subsequent to prior examination, once the OEPM has checked that the object of the patent meets the formal, technical and patentability requirements, in such a way that all patent applications must pass through the filter of an examination of novelty and inventive step in order to be granted, this guaranteeing that "solid patents" are registered.

Furthermore, with the aim of accelerating the granting process, the new law unifies proceedings, in comparison to the current sequential structure based on passing through successive stages. It also substitutes the current prior opposition with a post-granting opposition system within six months of the same being published.

The new law 24/2015 furthermore eliminates the notion of "patents of addition" (not present in European patents), which in the current law, enable the holder of a patent in force to protect that perfect or develop the invention object of the same, requesting addendums to the patent provided that they are in keeping with the main object of the patent and remain within the scope of the same inventive activity. 

Employee inventions, which are now referred to as "inventions accomplished within the framework of an employment or services relationship", have also changed under the phrasing of the new law: conditions for the exercise of rights that the law recognises are set forth for each of the parties; de facto and de jure presumption (which would allow the business owner to claim ownership of the inventions for which a patent had been applied for by a former employee within the year following termination of the employment relationship) is substituted for another kind, which accepts evidence to the contrary showing that these inventions were created whilst the same was in force; the period granted to employees who have created an invention in which to inform their employer has been reduced from three to one month; and employees have been granted with the right to claim reasonable compensation for non-patentable technical improvements they obtained when carrying out their activities from their employer, which, by means of the use thereof as an industrial secret, offer the employer a similar advantageous position to that obtained from an industrial property right.

Finally, it must be noted that, amongst many other amendments, law 24/2015 has made changes to fundamental aspects of the regulation of utility models. First of all, the novelty required for it to be granted will be the same as that required of invention patents or in other words, absolute novelty. In contrast, in current legislation, the novelty required is limited to novelty within Spain. Secondly, the scope of protection has been extended, in such a way that they may cover any product or composition, with the sole exception of biological material and pharmaceutical substances and compositions. Thirdly, an opposition against a utility model application may be filed prior to the granting thereof, in comparison to invention patents, with the opposition period being extended from two to four months.

This new law will come into effect on the 1st of April, 2017.